Tbilissi Bains Soufres

The Tbilisi Sulfur Baths in the Abanotubani district are not merely a spa experience but the very reason for the Georgian capital's existence — King Vakhtang Gorgasali founded the city in the 5th century around these sulphurous springs, and Tbilisi has grown for 1,500 years above the geothermal system that still heats the city's famous bathhouses. The distinctive domed brick structures of Abanotubani, their roofs perforated with glass oculi and covered with earth, channel naturally hot sulphurous water at 37°C directly from volcanic rock into private and communal bathing rooms. Writers from Alexander Pushkin to Alexandre Dumas visited and described the unique experience of being scrubbed, soaked and massaged in these volcanic waters. The old city's Silk Road atmosphere, with its carved wooden balconies and 5th-century Metekhi church, frames the thermal experience in matchless historical grandeur.