Petra (Georgia)
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Petra ( Georgian პეტრა ) was a city in ancient Georgia , in the kingdom of Egrissi (Lasika). Today the ruins of numerous buildings and walls of the city in Adjara , in the municipality of Kobuleti , in the village of Zichisdsiri have been preserved.
The area of Petra was already settled in the Stone Age, in Roman times there was a fortress which was called "Petra" during the Byzantine Empire . Archaeological excavations brought a necropolis and settlement remains from the 2nd – 3rd centuries. Century AD.
A town was founded in the 6th century by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I founded. The favorable strategic location of Petra led to the city's rapid economic development. Petra later also became the center of the Orthodox diocese of Lasika . Excavations also found the ruins of a Christian basilica in the city , dating from the 6th-7th centuries. Century.
Petra controlled the eastern part of the Black Sea and the fleet of the Byzantine Empire . Byzantium and the Sassanid Empire always had great interest in the city. Their political and economic expansion in the region depended in large part on the control of Petra. That was also the reason for the wars between the Roman Empire and Persia in the 6th century. Petra did not lose its importance in the Middle Ages either. The medieval Georgian name of the city was Kadschetis Ziche (German Burg von Schraten ). Even in the 19th century, Petra was an important place for trade.
literature
- D. Musselishvili: Georgian Soviet Encyclopedia . Volume 8, Tiflis 1984, p. 42.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Otar Lortkipanidze : Archeology in Georgia. From the Paleolithic to the Middle Ages . (Sources and research on prehistoric and Roman provincial archeology) VCH, Acta humaniora, Weinheim 1991, ISBN 3-527-17531-8 , p. 163.