Nekresi

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Nekresi (Georgian: ნეკრესი) is a historic and archaeological site in eastern Georgian region of Kakheti, between the town of Qvareli and the village of Shilda, at the foothills of the Greater Caucasus mountains. It is home to the still-functioning Nekresi monastery, founded in the 6th century.

Nekresi is known from the early medieval Georgian sources as a once flourishing town of Antiquity. A series of archaeological expeditions, beginning in 1984, have uncovered various features of a large settlement, but its extents remain unknown owing to a densely forested landscape and lack of written sources. Several major structures, unearthed across the site and mostly dated to the Late Antiquity, bear traces of earthquakes and violent destruction. Nekresi was reduced to a village or a number of hamlets in the 8th century. Its principal monastery remained functional, but the town itself became engulfed in foliage and gradually disappeared from historical memory until its rediscovery by modern archaeology.

Some of the most important archaeological discoveries include the Nagebebi winery, a Zoroastrian fire temple, and the early Christian basilicas of Chabukauri and Dolochopi.