Sataplia cave together with Prometheus cave are one of the main tourist sights around Kutaisi town, in Republic of Georgia.
I first visited Sataplia cave at the end of May 2014, when my father for the first time visited me in Georgia. I picked him up at Kutaisi airport and before departing back to Tbilisi I decided to take an opportunity and explore this cave together..
At first you will need to have some taxi to get there, luckily I had one. Sataplia cave is located some 18 km away from Kutaisi.
The entrance fee (as of 2014) in park was 6GEL and was accompanied by English speaking guide
Entrance gates at Sataplia cave territory
Sataplia Cave is located at Sataplia Nature reserve, and to make things more interesting some wise Georgian (I guess former president of Republic of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili and his team), has decided to add Dinosaur footsteps there as well. Nothing impressive about Dinosour there, just some footsteps in stone and some plastic makets of REX.
Dinosaur footstep in rock at Sataplia
I got this feeling that Dinosaur footsteps is just a nice hoax to get there more tourists, but I don't say this for sure.
View to surrounding areas
Sataplia is a very interesting place for Kutaisi visitors. The Sataplia karst cave lies 6 km. North-West of Kutaisi within Sataplia state preserve and is known for its Dinosaurs traces. The specialists think that in this view Sataplia is one of the richest places in the world. Sataplia and the traces of Dinosaurs were discovered by Kutaisi environmentalist P. Chabukiani who detected there the settlement of the primitive man, together with the footprints of a Dinosaur.
Stalactites inside Sataplia cave
The Sataplia karst cave begins from North and leads to the East. 300m long, 10m. High and 12 m. wide karst cave abounds in stalactites and stalagmites. A spring is winding along its bottom. The air and water temperatures in the Sataplia karst cave are nearly equal ( 12-13 c). There is a speleological museum near it now. The Sataplia karst cave was also discovered by P.Chabukiani. He also took care of the unique forest which occupied 500 hectares and nowadays this forest and Sataplia itself represent the sanctuary. Near the Sataplia Karst cave in Tetramitsa the settlement of a primitive man discovered. There were discovered a wide range of stone weapons and other material which are kept in Kutaisi Ethnographical Museum.
Limestone rock inside Sataplia cave