The Katskhi Pillar in Georgia

The Katskhi pillar is an impressive limestone monolith, forty mtrs tall, located in the village of Katskhi in western Georgian region of Imereti. It is about 10 kms from the mining town of Chiatura. In pagan times & before the advent of Christianity, Katskhi Pillar was thought to symbolize a local god of fertility. After the arrival of Christianity in Georgia in the fourth century, the rock came to symbolize seclusion. According to the locals it stands the Pillar of Life.

At the top of the Katskhi pillar, are the remains of a church built between the 6th & 8th centuries. The church was perhaps built by the Stylites, who were early Christian austere who stood on top of pillars & preaching & praying. The only written record of the Katskhi pillar occurs in the text of an 18th-century Georgian scholar, who noted the church for its difficult accessibility. However, there exist a number of local legends surrounding the pillar. Among them 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 kilometer from the pillar.

The Katskhi pillar remained unclimbed by researchers until 1944. Following more systematic research after the year 1999, researchers concluded that complex was constitute of a monastery church & cells for hermits. Discovery of the loose ends of a wine cellar also undermined the idea of extreme ascetism flourishing on the pillar. A small limestone plate with the asomtavruli Georgian inscriptions was found in 2007, paleographically dated to the 13th century & revealing the name of a certain "Giorgi", responsible for the building of 3 hermit cells. The message also makes mention the structure as the Pillar of Life, representing the popular tradition of veneration of the rock as a symbol of the True Cross.

The monastery building on the peak of the Katskhi pillar is now restored & the rock is accessible through an iron ladder running from its base to the top.