National Botanical Garden of Georgia, Tbilisi

National Botanical Garden of Georgia, Tbilisi (Georgia)

The National Botanical Garden of Georgia formerly the Tbilisi Botanical Garden is located in Tbilisi the capital of Georgia and lies in the Tsavkisis-Tskali Gorge on the southern foothills of the Sololaki Range. It occupies an area of 161 hectares and possesses a collection of over 4500 taxonomic groups. Its history spans more than three centuries. It was first described in 1671 by the French traveler Jean Chardin as royal gardens which might have been founded at least in 1625 and were variably referred to as fortress gardens or Seidabad gardens later in history. The gardens appear in the records by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort and on the Tbilisi map composed by Prince Vakhushti. Pillaged in the Persian invasion of 1795 the garden was revived in the early 19th century and officially established as the Tiflis Botanical Garden in 1845.