In my journal, the first sentence I wrote about my trip to the cave-city monastery Vardzia, Georgia, was ‘It was SO hot today.’ This was true in Georgia nearly the whole summer. Even after insistence from my peers that I needed to see Vardzia, I wasn’t entirely convinced. I’d seen caves and I’d seen monasteries before. Both were…all right. I wasn’t ready for what I saw. After a crowded bus up the mountain – that didn’t take me even halfway up the amount of stairs I would have to climb to access the cave system – I realized that there was a stillness about the caves that I hadn’t expected. The temperature shifted as we went in and out of rooms added to the somber atmosphere inside the caves.
Largely built in the twelfth century, this once-great city was home to Queen Tamar, one of the greatest Georgian rulers. Her importance often feels understated today, but she is a prominent figure in the Church of Dormition icons and wall paintings. According to legend, these hundreds of rooms were given their name after Queen Tamar herself, who was once lost in the unfinished caves during construction. She cried out “Ak var, dzia!” which translates to “I’m here, uncle!” Tamar the Great was the one who transformed the city-fortress into the monastery it is known for today.
While the endless stone rooms began to blur together, we eventually entered into a small room labeled “Tamar’s Tears”. This room was cool, and somehow even more hushed than the monastery itself. A small amount of water burbled through; a small pond behind glass glittering under the lights. This room made the strongest impression on me. Tamar was an exceptional ruler in a time when women rarely ruled. Her leadership included not only great military success but cultural expansion, especially through her influence on the Georgian national poet Shota Rustaveli. His great epic The Knight in the Panther’s Skin is an allegory of Tamar’s rule and the Kingdom of Georgia. Tamar’s reach extended much farther than anyone could have imagined. Standing in the tiny cave room, staring at the water, brought a strange peacefulness that is hard to express. Knowing that such a powerful woman not only lived here but ruled it felt disorientating to think about. When we left that room, I was hit with the heat of the outside world.
The stark contrast between inside the caves, all coolness and calm, with the merciless heat outside, drew more than one sigh. But the discovery of the room, which had been like a small secret to hold, seemed like a connection to Tamar herself. I wanted to go back inside to keep avoiding the expectations of the demanding sun. Women often find hidden spaces to share their history, and that small room certainly felt like a place of shared history to me. There have always been expectations of the world on women, on Queen Tamar and those today. Ruler or not, the peacefulness one can find in a room helps me today when everything feels too hot. Standing in Tamar’s Tears, the cool quiet of the mountain around me, I felt not only the weight of Tamar the Great’s legacy as a woman ruling against expectation but how women today still seek out those spaces of peace and strength amid the pressures of the world.
-Hannah Spencer
Junior Girl
Girl Museum Inc.