The Katskhi Pillar, Georgia
The Katskhi pillar is an imposing limestone monolith, 40
meters tall, located in the village of Katskhi in western Georgian
region of Imereti, about 10 kilometers from the mining town of Chiatura.
In pagan times, before the advent of Christianity, the towering Katskhi
Pillar was thought to represent a local god of fertility. With the
arrival of Christianity in Georgia in the 4th century, the rock came to
represent seclusion. The locals call it the Pillar of Life.
At
the summit of the Katskhi pillar, are the remains of a small church
built between the 6th and 8th centuries. The church was probably built
by the Stylites, who were early Christian ascetics who stood on top of
pillars and preaching and praying. The only written record of the
Katskhi pillar occur in the text of an 18th-century Georgian scholar,
who noted the church for its inaccessibility. There is however, a number
of local legends surrounding the pillar, one of which says that the top
of the rock was connected by a long iron chain to the dome of the
Katskhi church, located at a distance of around 1.5 km from the pillar.
