Chapter 18 :: Mysterious Tales of Modern Dubai :: Secrets of the Cave City

Chapter 18

Secrets of the Cave City

Lily woke up early this morning. She was flying to Georgia by an afternoon flight, to visit her grand parents who lived in a small town of Georgia, Signaghi. This beautiful town was located in the east end of Georgia, over looking the snow covered Caucasus mountains.

By the time Lily reached Signaghi, it was already 8:30 in the evening. She was surprised how unlike Dubai, evening lasted till 9 PM. She was so happy seeing the greenery and the beautiful landscape that surrounded her.

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As the night striked and she went off to bed after having her dinner, words of Dijinn echoed in her mind "You must bring back something for me from Georgia".

She started to remember about her conversation with Dijinn and fell asleep.

Next morning Lily went up to her grand father and asked him "Grand Pa where are Uplistsikhe caves? Are they far from here?"

"Why what happened Lily?" asked Mevlud Meladze, her grand father.

"I have heard a lot about those caves and I want to see them. Can we please go there?" asked Lily

"They are very far from here and besides there is not much to do there for kids. I was thinking to take you to the Kazbegi and show you the snow on our way. What do you think?" said Mevlud.

Lily wanted to see snow because this was something that she missed in Dubai. Even though she visited Ski Dubai in Mall of Emirates to get the experience of snow, but seeing the real snow was something that she had not done ever since she came to live in Dubai.

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"I want to see the snow, but I must visit these caves. I am interested in the historical places as well."  said Lily

"OK my little angel. I will take you there as well. Mind you, it is going to be a very long drive" said Mevlud.

Two days later, the family left for Uplistsikhe caves. They sat in a silver colored Mercedes Van. Mevlud was driving with Mike on the side seat. Susan and Alexei sat in the middle row of the van. And Lily sat with her grand mother Gvansa in the back seat.

"So why did you say Lily you wanted to visit these caves for?" asked Gvansa, who was in her late 60s. She was a slim white hair, fair colored woman.

"I want to know about those caves, the history of it" replied Lily.

"OK. What exactly you want to know. May be I can answer few of your queries. I am a historian and used to work as a tour guide in my 40s" said Gvantsa with a calm smiling face.

Lily kept quiet for a while. After few thoughtful seconds she asked "Do you know anything about the pot with the sun engraved on its one side and the moon with stars engraved on the opposite?"

Gvansta gave a brief smile to Lily and said "is that all you want to know about the caves? I could have told you about this at home. Anyways, there is a saying that there is a pot made of pine which is hidden somewhere in those caves that has curing powers. If you drink mineral water that comes out of earth in Borjomi in that pot, you can get cured of almost any disease"

"Where is that pot? Can I have it?" asked curious Lily

"No-one ever found that pot even after so much of excavations. It is said to be with the royal families that ruled the caves 4000 years ago" said Gvantsa.

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"Are those royal families still there" asked Lily.

"No-one knows. But there is a saying that they still are" said Gvantsa

"What is so secret about them? Why don't they come forward and introduce themselves? They will get so popular." said Lily

"It is said that they possessed powers, much more than a normal human being. The knowledge of controlling and using the powers used to get passed on from one to generation to another, only if it was needed by the successor." explained Gvantsa "With the passing time the cave city lost its importance, so the royal families took some other shelters and eventually lost their significance in the history."

In their talks they didn't realize when they reached their destination. Lily wanted the pot for herself from the caves. But she was disappointed to know that the pot was never found and might not even be there to be found. When they reached the entrance gate of the park, inside which was the way into the hill, on the right, in which the caves were carved by humans in 1000 BC. On the left was the Mtkveri river flowing. They hiked for over 200 meters. Gvantsa took Lily and the family to the opening of a tunnel which went down and met the river bed.

To enhance the experience of Lily, Gvantsa gave her a necklace to wear which was made out of stones. Stones of the necklace were beautifully carved with the images of animals, flowers, sun, moon and stars. They started walking down the staircase of the tunnel until they reached the bottom in front of which flew the river. Gvantsa asked Lily to stop at the end of the tunnel and not to go out until she catches up with her. Lily was quick, Gvantsa was slow due to her age.

When Gvantsa reached where Lily was standing, she asked Lily if she wanted to drink some water. As she asked this question, she put her hand inside her bag and started to take out a container of water. Container was covered in a net of wool. She offered the water to Lily "Drink this Lily".

Lily took the jug shaped container from her grand mother, opened the lid and drank water. As soon as she took the first sip, she stopped immediately and threw the water. "This water is rotten. It smells like acid" shouted Lily

"No Lily, it's the natural mineral water. Drink it. This water is really good for health." said Gvantsa.

Lily did as instructed. Soon after looking around the place they went back to their home.

At night, when everybody slept, Gvantsa walked into the room where Lily was sleeping. She switched on the light of the room and called her name "Lily. Lily. Are you awake"

"Hey Grandma" said Lily in sleepy voice "you didn't sleep yet"

"No, not yet" said Gvantsa

"How is Takhun?" asked Gvantsa

Shocked to hear Takhun's name from her grandma, Lily immediately woke up and sat on her bed looking straight into Gvantsa's eyes with mouth wide open. "How do you know about Takhun Grandma?"

"Few years back King Takhun came to Georgia, looking for the royal family of Uplistsikhe caves" said Gvantsa.

"But why was he looking for royal families?" asked Lily.

"Because Sharr once lived in the Uplistsikhe cave city. As a young magician he went to the city looking to earn his living. He was overwhelmed with the wealth of the people and soon started to indulge in the black magic to trick and loot people. The words of his acts reached the ears of the queen of the city - Queen Tamara. She was a gentle soul who, through meditation, gained powers that were beyond the imagination of the normal humans.

When she got to know about about the evil acts of Sharr, she got the Sharr imprisoned in one of the caves of the cave city. Aware of the black magic of Sharr, Queen Tamara casted a spell on the walls of the prison cave. She poured the mineral water from Borjomi in the pine pot, enchanted some prayers and sprinkled the water on the walls. Spell of the queen kept Sharr bounded for several years, until the death of the queen.

After the queen's death the spell on the walls broke and Sharr was able to escape from the prison and never returned back. Rumors were that he escaped to the beautiful land of Savannah."

Lily kept listening to her grandma in silence.

Breaking the silence Lily asked "But why did Takhun visited you?"

"Because I am the descendant of the royal family" replied Gvantsa with a smile on her face"And so are you Lily"



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