Ateni gorge is a gorge in the valley of
Tana River (sometimes also called Tana gorge) in northern spurs of
Trialeti Range
Trialeti Range ( ka, თრიალეთის ქედი) is an east-west mountain range of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains in the Samtskhe–Javakheti region of southern Georgia.
The eastern edge of the Range runs along the western border o ...
of the
Lesser Caucasus
The Lesser Caucasus, also called Caucasus Minor, is the second of the two main mountain ranges of Caucasus mountains, of length about . The western portion of the Lesser Caucasus overlaps and converges with east Turkey and northwest Iran.
It runs ...
mountains.
[ Ateni Valley ]Geonames.org
GeoNames (or GeoNames.org) is a user editable geographical database available and accessible through various web services, under a Creative Commons attribution license. The project was founded in late 2005.
The GeoNames dataset differs from ...
/ref> It is situated about 8 km south of the city of Gori in Shida Kartli
Shida Kartli ( ka, შიდა ქართლი, , ; "Inner Kartli") is a landlocked administrative region (''Mkhare'') in eastern Georgia. It comprises a central part of the historical-geographic province of Shida Kartli. With an area of , Sh ...
region of the Republic of Georgia
A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
.
The gorge has a number of architectural monuments. Among them Ateni Sioni Church
The Ateni Sioni Church ( ka, ატენის სიონი) is an early 7th-century Georgian Orthodox church in the village of Ateni, some south of the city of Gori, Georgia. It stands in a setting of Ateni gorge in the Tana River valley ...
of the 7th century, Ateni fortress of at least 10th century, and a small church of the 7th-9th century. A historical town of Ateni was built in the 11th century, but completely destroyed subsequently.[Закарая, П. (1983) Памятники Восточной Грузии. Искусство, Москва, 376 с. (In Russian)]
References
{{Reflist
Landforms of Georgia (country)
Canyons and gorges of Georgia (country)