Machkhani Church

Machkhani is a small church that is a monument of Georgian architecture and is located in the Mtskheta-Mtianeti region, near Tsodoreti. According to inscriptions, the church was built in 853 during the Arab dominion, making it one of the earliest and precisely dated monuments in the vicinity of Tbilisi. The church building is made of porous tuff, but some of its parts, such as the lavgardani, the architrave with an inscription at the southern entrance, the tiled inscription on the eastern facade, and the facing of the upper parts of the wall, are made of denser yellowish stone. The internal vaults and the apse shell are laid with cobblestones. The interior decoration of the church has survived to this day, and traces of painting can be seen, dating back to a later period, the 11th century.