Otkhara Cave Monastery Complex
# Otkhara Cave Monastery Complex

The Otkhara cave complex is a group of caves at the foot of the Bzyb Range in Abkhazia, an entity in the South Caucasus with a disputed political status. It is located on a steep rock near the village of Otkhara, some 20 km northwest of the town of Gudauta. The caves are also known as those of Mchishta after a karst river effluxing from the base of the rock. The openings are at least partially artificial. Local legends and a scholarly hypothesis suggest religious use in the Middle Ages, but the exact function and timing remains unknown.

## Description

The cave entrances are located at the height of several metres above the ground surface and arranged in several tiers. They are rectangular in shape, ostensibly human-hewn, and faced by stones, joined together with lime mortar. Each of these caves is a narrow grotto of about 2 to 3 metres in width, but as high as 15 metres. Wooden details of rock-hewn openings have survived. According to local legends, the caves used to house a community of monks, but later it was used as a shelter for brigands. In the latter half of the 19th century, a nobleman from Otkhara, Mazhar Shervashidze, led a group of locals in an attempt to explore the caves. He was able to ascend the first tier and reportedly recovered a couple of silver objects, the subsequent fate of which is unknown. It was only in 1958 that the caves were first explored scientifically, by a group of specialists from Tbilisi with the help of rockclimbers. Several utensils of everyday use found in the caves are dated to the 13th–14th century.

