Description : Akhaltsikhe (Georgian: ახალციხე , literally "new castle"; formerly known as Lomsia) is a small city in Georgia's southwestern region (mkhare) of Samtskhe–Javakheti. It is situated on the both banks of a small river Potskhovi, which separates the city to the old city in the north and new in the south. In the old part of the city one can see the great Rabati Castle, built by the Ottomans around a mosque, and St. Marine's Church. The hills nearby the city harbour the Sapara Monastery (10th–14th centuries). The vicinity of Akhaltsikhe is rich in other archeological and medieval Georgian monuments. Among them Vale, Okrostsikhe and Zarzma. The city is first mentioned in the chronicles in the 12th century. In the 12th–13th centuries it was the seat of the House of Akhaltsikhe, dukes (atabegs) of Samtskhe Duchy (saatabago), whose two most illustrious representatives were Shalva and Ivane Akhaltsikheli. From the 13th up to the 17th century the city and Samtkhe were governed by the House of Jaqeli. The city suffered numerous invasions by Mongols, Iranians and Turks. In 1576 the Ottomans took it and made it the residence of pasha. From 1628 the city became the centre of the Akhalzik Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire as "Ahıska". In 1828, during the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829, Russian troops under the command of General Paskevich captured the city and, as a consequence of the 1829 Treaty of Adrianople (Edirne), it was ceded to the Russian Empire as part of first Kutais and then Tiflis Governorates. In the late 1980s the city was host to the Soviet Army's 10th Guards Motor Rifle Division, which became a brigade of the Georgian land forces after the fall of the Soviet Union.
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