საწურბლიას მღვიმე

Satsurblia Cave


Useful Information

Location: Village Kumistavi, Tskaltubo Municipality.
(42.387795, 42.606163)
Open: All year daily .
[2021]
Fee:  
Classification: SpeleologyKarst cave ExplainSpeleotherapy
Light: LightLED Lighting
Dimension: L=130 m, A=287 m asl., Ar=1,950 m², V=8,100 m³.
Guided tours: self guided
Photography: allowed
Accessibility: no
Bibliography: Ron Pinhasi, Tengiz Meshveliani, Zinovi Matskevich, Lior Weissbrod, Christopher Miller, Keith Wilkinson, David Lordkipanidze, Nino Jakeli, Eliso Kvavadze, Thomas Higham, Anna Belfer-Cohen (2014): Satsurblia: New Insights of Human Response and Survival across the Last Glacial Maximum in the Southern Caucasus.
PLoS ONE, October 2014, Volume 9, Issue 10, e111271. DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0111271. researchgate
Address: Satsurblia Cave, Satsurblia Cave Natural Monument, Tel: +995-577-10-14-17. E-mail:
Imereti Caves Protected Areas Administration, Jumber Leladze, Tel: +995-577-977272. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1975 discovered by A. N. Kalandadze and the Stone Age expedition of the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography.
1976 excavations by A. N. Kalandadze.
1985–1988 excavations by A. N. Kalandadze.
1989–1992 excavations by K. Kalandadze.
2008–2010 excavations by Tengiz Meshveliani from the Georgian National Museum.
2012–2013 excavations by the international Georgia-Ireland-Israel Tskaltubo Stone Age Archaeological Expedition led by Tengiz Meshveliani.

Description

საწურბლიას მღვიმე (Satsurblia Cave) is a well developed cave, but not a show cave. It's not possible to visit the cave as it is used exclusively for speleotherapy. If you want to visit the cave you have to buy a speleotherapy ticket, have a look at the cave and enjoy the good air.

Satsurblia Cave is praised as "the first international standard speleotherapy cave in Georgia", for people with respiratory problems. The government invested 647,000 GEL in the construction of concrete trails and platforms, electric light, and a new visitor center in front of the cave. The cave is divided into two different zones, an active and passive zone. In the active zone a playground for children was installed. The passive zone is for people who prefer to read or sleep during their stay. In this part also sunbeds were installed, so you can cure the respiratory problems and get a tan at the same time. That feat is unique among speleotherapy sites, as far as we know.

If you are not the responsible tourist marketing guy or suffer from a respiration disease, you might have a different opinion. Actually the cave is a quite important archaeological site with remains from the end of the Neanderthal and the beginning of the modern man habitation. Lithic artefacts, bones, charcoal, flax fibers, and pottery were discovered at the cave. The animal bones included brown bear, wild boar, noble deer, wolf, and fox. The cave was occupied between 25,500 and 24,400 BP and between 17,000 and 16,200 BP. The hiatus in human occupation was during the Last Glacial Maximum.

The cave has a rather small entrance at the bottom of a doline. A 125 m long and 6 m wide passage leads to a huge chamber which is 30 meters long and 25 meters wide. A long staircase leads down to the floor of the chamber.