Gudamaq'ari (Gudamakari; ka, გუდამაყარი) is a small historical geographic area in northeast

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

on the southern slopes of the

Greater Caucasus The Greater Caucasus ( az, Böyük Qafqaz, Бөјүк Гафгаз, بيوک قافقاز; ka, დიდი კავკასიონი, ''Didi K’avk’asioni''; russian: Большой Кавказ, ''Bolshoy Kavkaz'', sometimes translat ...

Mountains. Located along the river valley of

Aragvi The Aragvi ( ka, არაგვი) and its basin are in Georgia on the southern slopes of the Caucasus Mountains. The river is long, and its basin covers an area of . The ground strata are mostly sandstone, slate, and limestone. The Zhinval ...

, it is bordered by

Mtiuleti Mtiuleti ( ka, მთიულეთი; literally, "the land of mountains") is a historical province in eastern Georgia, on the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus Mountains. It primarily comprises the White Aragvi Valley, and is bordered by ...

on the west,

Khevi Khevi ( ka, ხევი) is a small historical-geographic area in northeastern Georgia. It is included in the modern-day Kazbegi district, Mtskheta-Mtianeti region (mkhare). Located on the northern slopes of the Greater Caucasus mountains, it co ...

on the north,

Khevsureti Khevsureti (Georgian: ხევსურეთი, ''a land of valleys'') is a historical-ethnographic region in eastern Georgia. They are the branch of Kartvelian (Georgian) people located along both the northern (Pirikita khevsureti, Georgian: ...

and

Pshavi Pshavi ( ka, ფშავი) is a small historic region of northern Georgia, nowadays part of the Mtskheta-Mtianeti ''mkhare'' ("region"), and lying chiefly among the southern foothills of the Greater Caucasus mountains along the Pshavis Aragvi ...

on the east, and

Khando Khando (russian: links=no, Хандо) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, rural locality (a Village#Russia, selo) in Chankovsky Selsoviet, Botlikhsky District, Republic of Dagestan, Russia. The population was 33 as of 2010. Geography ...

and Ch'artali communities on the south. Gudamaq'ari is sometimes viewed as a part of

. Modern administrative subdivision of Georgia places the area in the

Mtskheta-Mtianeti Mtskheta-Mtianeti ( ka, მცხეთა-მთიანეთი, literally "Mtskheta-Mountain Area") is a region (Mkhare) in eastern Georgia comprising the town of Mtskheta, which serves as a regional capital, together with its district and t ...

mkhare A ''mkhare'' ( ka, მხარე, ''mxare'') is a type of administrative division in the country of Georgia (country), Georgia. It is usually translated as "region". According to presidential decrees in 1994 and 1996, Georgia's division into ...

(region).

History

The inhabitants of Gudamaq’ari – Gudamaq’relebi (გუდამაყრელები) – are first chronicled by the 11th century Georgian historian

Leonti Mroveli Leonti Mroveli ( ka, ლეონტი მროველი) was the 11th-century Georgian chronicler, presumably an ecclesiastic. ''Mroveli'' is not his last name, but the adjective for the diocese of Ruisi, whose bishop he probably was.Rayfiel ...

in connection with the conversion of

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

Kartli Kartli ( ka, ქართლი ) is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari (Kura), on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial role ...

by St. Nino in the 330s. A strategic road running through this area played an important role in medieval Georgia and was much later, under the

Imperial Russia The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

n rule, connected to the

Georgian Military Road The Georgian Military Road or Georgian Military Highway (, 'sakartvelos samkhedro gza'' , os, Арвыкомы фæндаг 'Arvykomy fændag'' is the historic name for a major route through the Caucasus from Georgia to Russia. Alternative r ...

.Images from the Georgia-Chechnya Border, 1970-1980: Visual Anthropology of the Peripheries

References

Former provinces of Georgia (country) Historical regions of Georgia (country) {{Georgia-geo-stub