Ana Kalandadze

Ana Kalandadze was a Georgian poetess and one of the most influential female figures in modern Georgian literature.Kalandadze was born in the village Khidistavi near Chokhatauri in Georgia’s southwest province of Guria. She graduated from the Faculty of Philology at Tbilisi State University in 1946, and published her first poems the same year. Her intricate, subtle rhythms, and personal lyricism garnered much popularity. In the words of Professor Donald Rayfield:

From the 700 or so poems she has now published it is now possible to extract some sort of consistent philosophy, for all the reticence and stoicism. The rare outburst of defiance never amount to more than a couple of lines in a poem and have been subtle enough not to arouse the antagonism of [Soviet] authority.

—Rayfield, p. 274

Many of Kalandadze’s poems on patriotic and romantic themes have been made into popular songs. She was also a prolific translator of Russian and European poetry.

Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani

Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani   was a Georgian prince, writer, monk and convert to Roman Catholicism.Sulkhan Orbeliani was born into a prestigious dynasty of the Georgian nobility, with close ties to the Royal Bagrationi Dynasty. He was a great figure of the Renaissance; he was a remarkable fabulist, great lexicographer, translator, diplomat and scientist. The words of one of the French missioner Jean Richard brilliantly conform to his great authority among his contemporaries, “I believe him to be the father of all Georgia."

Sulkhan Saba Orbeliani was born on the 4th of November, 1658, in Village Tandzia near Bolnisi in the Kvemo Kartli. He spent his childhood and adolescence there. He was brought up at court of King Giorgi XI and got encyclopedic education due to the Great Palace Library. When he was 20–25 years old he wrote a collection of fables and tales “Sibrdzne Sitsruisa” (“Wisdom of Fancy”), which is a fruit of his observation over life. 
The next his work is The Georgian Dictionary which contained the encyclopedic elements excels with its advanced methodology and plenty of actual material (it is necessary to emphasize that “the world does not know the encyclopedia yet. Collection of these words is a great treasure. Sulkhan Saba Orbeliani was an educator of the King of Kartli Vakhtang VI. Remarkable poet and scientist Vakhtang VI was the leader of the great movement initiated for intellectual renaissance of Georgia. They founded a lot of glorious deeds in the cultural sphere. In 1709 the first printing-house was established, where for the first time the Gospel and “The Knight in Tiger’s Skin”, were printed.
Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani appealed to the West for assistance.The growth of his state authority was crowned with his diplomatic missions. The route of travel of the great Georgian figure was as follows: Constantinople, Marseilles, Paris, Rome, and other cities of Italy and finally back to Georgia through Constantinopol and Turkey. In Paris Sulkhan-Saba appeared before Ludwig XIV and in Italy before the Papa Clemente XI. They knew that he was considered to be the Father of all Georgia and therefore they treated him as an honourable guess.
The ruling circles in France changed and relations with countries of the Near East became aggravated. Concrete historical circumstance made the travel of Sulkhan-Saba unsuccessful, his attempts to bring Georgia and states of Western Europe together turned out to be all in vain.

Before becoming a monk of David-Garedja Monastery 1698 under the name Saba, he converted to the Roman Catholic Church (1692). He originally practiced his new religion in secret. After 1703 he made spreading the Catholic Faith in Georgia a major policy of King Vakhtang VI, who had been his pupil. In 1713-1714 he made a journey to the Holy See and to France. He visited Pope Clement XI and King Louis XIV and requested aid from them for King Vakhtang and the Catholic Faith in Kartli (East-Georgian Kingdom). After his return to Kartli he actively began trying to spread Catholicism in Georgia.

Shota Rustaveli

Shota Rustaveli was a  Georgian poet of the 12th century, and one of the greatest contributors to Georgian secular literature. He is author of "The Knight in the Panther's Skin., the Georgian national epic poem.
Little, if anything, is known about Rustaveli from contemporary sources. His poem itself, namely the prologue, provides a clue to his identity: the poet identifies himself as "a certain Rustveli." "Rustveli" is not a surname, but a territorial epithet which can be interpreted as "of/from/holder of Rustavi." Later Georgian authors of the 15th-18th centuries are more informative: they are almost unanimous in identifying him as Shota Rustaveli, a name which is preserved on a fresco and a document from the formerly Georgian Monastery of the Holy Cross at Jerusalem. The fresco was described by the Georgian pilgrim Timote Gabashvili in 1757/58, and rediscovered by a team of Georgian scholars in 1960. 

"The Knight in the Panther's Skin" has been translated into many languages. It was first printed in 1712 in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. The manuscripts of "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" occupy an important place among the secular works produced in Georgia.
The highest Georgian state prize in the fields of art and literature is the Shota Rustaveli State Prize. Tbilisi's main thoroughfare is Rustaveli Avenue.
The fresco representing the legendary Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli was vandalized in June 2004 in the 11th-century Georgian-built Monastery of the Holy Cross. An unknown vandal scratched out the face of Shota Rustaveli and part of the accompanying Georgian inscription with his name on the south-west pier.


The Knight in the Panther's Skin  is an epic poem, consisting of over 1600 shairi quatrains, was written in the 12th century by the Georgian epic-poet Shota Rustaveli, who was a Prince and Treasurer at the royal court of Queen Tamar of Georgia. The Knight in the Panther's Skin is often seen as Georgia's national epic.
Shota Rustaveli is regarded by Georgians as their greatest poet. There is little known about his origins, but as the 8th quatrain in the poem suggests, the author identifies himself as Rustveli, literary meaning, "someone from Rustavi"
It was Queen Tamar to whose honor the poet dedicated his masterpiece, written in ca. 1196-1207. In 1960, the Georgian Archaeological expedition discovered a portrait of Rustaveli on the wall of ninth-century Georgian Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem. A medieval Georgian inscription identifies the figure of the old man with long white beard and dressed in rich clerical habit as Shota from Rustavi.


In the poem, Rustaveli talks about Medieval humanistic ideals: chivalry, feelings of love, friendship, courtly love, courage and fortitude. The heroes of the poem are brave, philanthropic, and generous. The heroes of the poem are not restricted to Georgian nationality. The regions of Persia, China, and India all figure in the poem. The poem is approximately 6500 lines and shows in places strong Persian influence.
The poem has been translated into at least 49 languages.The Knight in the Panther's Skin (Vepkhvistkhaosani) describes the adventures of Avtandil, a young Arab nobleman, and his friend Tariel, an Indian prince. Avtandil is sent by his beloved, Tinatin, the newly crowned ruler of Arabia, on the mission to find a mysterious and elusive Knight clad in a tiger's skin. Avtandil finds the knight, who turns out to be Prince Tariel, grieving over the disappearance of the beautiful Nestan-Darejan, daughter of his sovereign, King of India.
The poem ends with a double wedding: after the royal marriage of Tariel and Nestan-Darejan, Avtandil celebrates his own wedding to Queen Tinatin.

Zakaria Paliashvili

Zakaria Paliashvili was a composer from the nation ofGeorgia. He is regarded as a founder of Georgian classical music.As a young boy he sang in a choir and learned to play the organ in the St. Mary Catholic Church of Kutaisi. His first tutor was his brother Ivan, who later became aconductor. Paliashvili moved to Tbilisi in 1887 as a chorister in the St. Mary Assumption Catholic Church of Tbilisi, eventually entering the music school there, studying French horn and composition.
Paliashvili composed works for symphony orchestra (e.g., Georgian Suite on Folk Themes), but is probably best known for his vocal music, which includes choruses and songs.

His father, Petre Ivanovich Paliashvili (1838–1913) was a kind, hard working man, a model father and husband. he was an elder at the Kutaisi Georgian Catholic Church. Zakaria's mother, Maria Pavlova Mesarkishvili (1851–1916) was noted for her grace and spiritual beauty. Zakaria was the third child in a family of eighteen children (thirteen sons and five daughters). Seven children died in infancy. 
Thought Zakaria's parents were not professional musicians, their children remembered their mother's singing.
 The first to display considerable musical abilities was the eldest son Ivane (Vano) Paliashvili (1868–1934) who subsequently became an outstanding conductor. When Vano was eleven years old he was made assistant to the church organist, and the eight-year-old Zakaria was admitted as a chorister to the church choir. With the help of the dean, Father I. Antonishvili, little Zakaria studied "Lullaby for Jesus" and sang it with great success on Christmas night.
The Kutaisi period, however, left a deep impression on the life of the future composer. It was the place of his first contact with music, and the basis of his professional attitude to his life's dedication - music - had developed there, too.
 The first performance of a Georgian Ethnographic choir, established of the initiative and with the material support of Lado Agniashvili, a well-known public personality of those days, took a place in Tbilisi in 1886. Later the concerts of this choir were conducted by Joseph Ratil (Navratil), though Czech by birth had forever associated his life with Georgia. The concerts of Agniashvili's choir evoked very favourable comments from the patriotically minded Georgian public. Vano and Zakaria Paliashvili sang in this choir in 1887-1889 and this fact was of importance for future composer.
In 1889 Vano left for Russia where he was engaged as an opera conductor. His post of church organist was taken over by Zakaria who now had to support the entire family; as a result, he had no opportunity to continue his musical education.Zakaria Paliashvili graduated from the school with honour diploma in the spring of 1899.During his school years he had founded a mixed choir factory and office workers which performed Georgian and Russian folk songs for workers. In 1898 Paliashvili conducted his choir in Gyandja and had a tremendous success.
As a pupil of the Moscow Conservatory in 1901, Zakaria Paliashvili made his first trip through Georgia to collect folksong material. He recorded remarkable speciments of Georgian songs. This work laid the foundation for Paliashvili's folklorist activity.
Towards the end of June 1903 Paliashvili completed his studies under Taneyev. Together with his young wife Julia Mikhailovna Utkina, Zakaria Paliashvili returned to Georgia to put into practice the knowlage gained in Russia. In autumn of 1903, Paliashvili began teaching at the Tbilisi High School for the nobility, where he had a singing class and also conducted the choir and orchestra, founded by him. Zakaria was a strict and uncompromising teacher. He demanded full accuracy of intonation and precision of rhythm for every pupil-member of his choir or orchestra. He made such big progress in this field, that the school choir and orchestra soon began giving public concerts.
In the summer of 1903, Zakaria Paliashvili and A.S. Khakhashvili (Khakhanov), professor at the University of Moscow and specialist in the history of Georgian literature, made a tour of Svanetia (a high-attetude area in western Georgia). where they recorded some very rare old Georgian folk songs. Paliashvili described the trip to his favourite teacher, S.I. Taneyev. in 1903-1908 with the same goal in view Paliashvili toured such districts as Racha, where he recorded local folk singers, and in particular a mestvire (Bag-piper); Guria (Ozurgeti), Imereti, Kartli and Kakheti. Part of the songs, recorded by Zakaria Paliashvili were published in Moscow as a collection in 1910.


When Georgia joined Russia, the autocephaly of the Georgian Orthodox Church was avikusged. This endangered the national music, which is based upon a well-developed polyphony. The first notations of chorals, on the suggestion of the Georgian clergy was carried out by M.M. Ipolitov-Ivanov. His Collection on Georgian Chorals from the Liturgy of St. John the Golden Mouthed formed the basis for the Collection of 22 Georgian Chorals, compiled by Paliashvili and published in Moscow in 1910, together with his collection of folk songs. An illustrative and creative elaboration for the rich traditions of Georgian folk and church singing are the remarkable choral compositions by Niko Sulkhanishvili, a gifted composer and Zakaria's friend. 

The opening night of this opera took place on February 21, 1919. It was produced by A. Tsutsunava and conducted by the author. The leading parts were performed by B. Zapliski (Absalom), who was soon substituted by Vano Sarajishvili; O. Bakutashvili-Shulgina (Etery) and Sandro Inashvili (Murman).


Since the beginning of the thirties, Zakaria was frequently unwell. His illness was diagnosed as sarcoma of the adrenal gland. Anton and Nikoloz Paliashvili, the composer’s brothers took Zakaria to Leningrad to see a friend of theirs, Yustin Djanilidze, a famous Soviet surgeon. The latter operated on Paliashvili, but when he saw that surgical interference would do no good, he stopped the operation and sewed up the wound. In regard to Paliashvili’s health he said: “There is no hope. He will live not more than two or three months.”
 The radio was switched on. Paliashvili strained to listen and at first his face was happy but soon it was contorted with severe pain. At 5 p.m. on October 6, 1933, Zakaria Paliashvili died. He was buried on October 10 in the garden of the opera house next to the grave of his friend Vano Sarajishvili, known as the “Georgian nightingale” By a decree of the Georgian Government the Tbilisi Second Musical School, the Tbilisi Ten-Year Musical School, the Batumi Musical School and a street in Tbilisi were named after Zakaria Paliashvili. Later, a street in Moscow was also named after him.

Sarkozy in Georgia!

French President Nikolaz Sarkozy was in Georgia.
Visiting Georgia during his trip to the Caucassus, Sarkozy provided support for Georgia's EU membership. Sarkozy visited Georgia after visiting Armenia and Azerbaijan. Sarkozy addressed people with his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili at Freedom Square in the capital Tbilisi.
Sarkozy who objects to Turkey's EU membership at every opportunity as he did during his visit to the Caucasus, supports the Union's borders reaching the Caucasus. Stating that he welcomes Georgia's EU membership bid, the French President once again showed that he considers the Union as a Christian club. 

Nikolaz Sarkozy  born Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa; 28 January 1955) is the 23rd and currentPresident of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra.Before his presidency, he was leader of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Under Jacques Chirac's presidency he served as Minister of the Interior in Jean-Pierre Raffarin's (UMP) first two governments (from May 2002 to March 2004), then was appointed Minister of Finances in Raffarin's last government (March 2004 to May 2005) and again Minister of the Interior in Dominique de Villepin's government (2005–2007).Sarkozy is known for wanting to revitalize the French economy.
Sarkozy is a Frenchman of mixed national and ethnic ancestry.During Sarkozy's childhood, his father allegedly refused to give his wife's family any financial help, even though he had founded his own advertising agency and had become wealthy. The family lived in a small mansion owned by Sarkozy's grandfather, Benedict Mallah, in the 17th Arrondissement of Paris. The family later moved toNeuilly-sur-Seine, one of the wealthiest communes of the Île-de-France région immediately west of the 17th Arrondissement just outside of Paris.
Sarkozy said that being abandoned by his father shaped much of who he is today. He also has said that, in his early years, he felt inferior in relation to his wealthier and taller classmates.
Sarkozy was enrolled in the Lycée Chaptal, a well regarded public middle and high school in Paris's 8th arrondissement, where he failed his sixième. His family then sent him to the Cours Saint-Louis de Monceau, a private Catholic school in the 17th arrondissement, where he was reportedly a mediocre student,but where he nonetheless obtained his baccalauréat in 1973.
Sarkozy married his first wife, Marie-Dominique Culioli, on 23 September 1982; her father was a pharmacist from Vico (a village north of Ajaccio, Corsica). They had two sons, Pierre (born in 1985), now a hip-hop producer,^[19] and Jean (born in 1986) now a local politician in the city of Neuilly-sur-Seine where Sarkozy started his own political career.
Sarkozy divorced Culioli in 1996, after they had been separated for several years.
As mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, Sarkozy met former fashion model and public relations executive Cécilia Ciganer-Albéniz (great-granddaughter of composer Isaac Albénizand daughter of a Moldovan father), when he officiated at her wedding, to television host Jacques Martin.  Sarkozy married her in October 1996, with witnesses Martin Bouygues and Bernard Arnault,They have one son, Louis, born 23 April 1997.
Sarkozy and Cécilia ultimately divorced on 15 October 2007, soon after his election as President.
Less than a month after separating from Cécilia, Sarkozy met Italian-born singer Carla Bruni at a dinner party, and soon entered a relationship with her. They married on 2 February 2008 at the Élysée Palace in Paris.
In 2010, there were controversial reports that the marriage was in trouble. Allegations on Twitter stated that both parties were having extramarital affairs.
Sarkozy is recognised by both the right and left's French parties as a skilled politician and striking orator His supporters within France emphasize his charisma, political innovation and willingness to "make a dramatic break" amid mounting disaffection against "politics as usual". Overall, he is considered more pro-United States and pro-Israeli than most French politicians.Sarkozy's political career began when he was 23, when he became a city councillor in Neuilly-sur-Seine. A member of the Neo-Gaullist party RPR, he went on to be elected mayor of that town, after the death of the incumbent mayor Achille Peretti. Sarkozy had been close to Peretti, as his mother was Peretti's secretary.
Sarkozy was a likely candidate for the presidency in 2007; in an often-repeated comment made on television channel France 2, when asked by a journalist whether he thought about the presidential election when he shaved in the morning, Sarkozy commented, "not just when I shave"In February 2007 Sarkozy appeared on a televised debate on TF1 where he expressed his support for affirmative action and the freedom to work overtime. Despite his opposition tosame-sex marriage, he advocated civil unions and the possibility for same-sex partners to inherit under the same regime as married couples. The law was voted in July 2007.
During the campaign, rival candidates had accused Sarkozy of being a "candidate for brutality" and of presenting hard-line views about France's future. Opponents also accused him of courting conservative voters in policy-making in a bid to capitalise on right-wing sentiments among some communities. However, his popularity was sufficient to see him polling as the frontrunner throughout the later campaign period, consistently ahead of rival Socialist candidate, Ségolène Royal.

Ivane Bizinashvili!

Boris Ivabishvili (bizina) (born 1956 in Chorvila) is a Georgian oligarch with a net worth reported to be 5.5 billion dollars. He is married with four children.Boris Ivanishvili was born in Georgia, before moving to Russia, The source of his wealth is metals and banking. Forbes's description of the secret of his success could apply to dozens of other oligarchs.

He bought firms that nobody needed for tens of millions of dollars and sold them for billions of dollars." He got his start in the 1980s selling computers, moved on to importing what was then a novelty in Russia, push-button phones, before moving into banking.
He began to build his empire in 1990 when, with partner Vitaly Malkin, he set up Rossiysky Kredit Bank. It is still his biggest holding. Also has interests in hotels; a Russian chain of drugstores called Doctor Stoletov. Redeveloping a former factory in downtown Moscow into a deluxe housing development, the first blocks of which are supposed to be completed by 2011 or 2012.

 Recently Ivanishvili became the subject of some interest in the art world, following his reported purchases of works by Pablo Picasso and the contemporary artist Peter Doig at auctions for prices well above their estimates.Ivanishvili now lives in the Georgian village of Chorvila, where he was born.In march 2010, he ranked 167th in 2010 Forbes List of billionaires, with a net worth 4.8 billion dollars.
Ivanishvili wants to come in politics during 3 year.He made roads in Sachkhere and helps people in sachkhere .he helps poor people but did'not like to pay attention to his name and stays unknown after the charity.

Tbilisi!

 Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari (Kura) River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi  and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936.

Founded in the 5th century by Vakhtang Gorgasali, the Georgian King of Iberia, and made into a capital in the 6th century, Tbilisi is a significant industrial, social, and cultural centre. The city is also emerging as an important transit route for global energy and trade projects.Tbilisi has often been a point of contention between various rival powers and empires.

The demographics of the city are diverse and historically it has been home to peoples from diverse cultures, religions and ethnicities. Despite being overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian, Tbilisi is one of the few places in the world where a synagogue and a mosque are located next to each other, in the ancient Bath district several hundred metres from the Metekhi Church. In recent times, Tbilisi has become known for the peaceful Rose Revolution, which took place around Freedom Square and nearby locations after the contested parliamentary elections of 2003 led to the resignation of the Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze.

Tbilisi has one international airport. Notable tourist destinations include the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi, Freedom Square, Sioni Cathedral, Metekhi, Narikala, Rustaveli Avenue, Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre, Anchiskhati Basilica, Mtatsminda Pantheon (Holy Mountain), Kashveti Church along with the National and Historic Museums of Georgia and a number of art galleries.

According to an old legend, the present-day territory of Tbilisi was covered by forests as late as 458. One widely accepted variant of the legend of Tbilisi's founding states that King Vakhtang I Gorgasali of Georgia went hunting in the heavily wooded region with a falcon (sometimes the falcon is replaced with either a hawk or other small birds of prey in the legend). The King's falcon allegedly caught or injured a pheasant during the hunt, after which both birds fell into a nearby hot spring and died from burns. King Vakhtang became so impressed with the hot springs that he decided to cut down the forest and build a city on the location.

Towards the end of the 4th century the fortress fell into the hands of the Persians after which the location fell back into the hands of the Kings of Kartli (Georgia) by the middle of the 5th century. King Vakhtang I Gorgasali (reigned in the middle and latter part of the 5th century), who is largely credited for founding Tbilisi, was actually responsible for reviving and building up the city and not founding it.

King Dachi I Ujarmeli, who was the successor of Vakhtang I Gorgasali, moved the capital from Mtskheta to Tbilisi according to the will left by his father. Beginning from the 6th century, Tbilisi started to grow at a steady pace due to the region's favourable and strategic location which placed the city along important trade and travel routes between Europe and Asia.Tbilisi's favourable and strategic location did not necessarily bode well for its existence as Eastern Georgia's/Iberia's capital. Located strategically in the heart of the Caucasus between Europe and Asia, Tbilisi became an object of rivalry between the region's various powers such as Persia, the Byzantine Empire, Arabia and the Seljuk Turks.From 570–580, the Persians took over Tbilisi and ruled it for about a decade. In the year 627, Tbilisi was sacked by the Byzantine/Khazar armies and later, in 736-738, Arab armies entered the town under Marwan II Ibn-Muhammad. After this point, the Arabs established an emirate centered in Tbilisi. In 1122, after heavy fighting with the Seljuks that involved at least 60,000 Georgians and up to 300,000 Turks, the troops of the King of Georgia David the Builder entered Tbilisi. After the battles for Tbilisi concluded, David moved his residence from Kutaisi (Western Georgia) to Tbilisi, making it the capital of a unified Georgian State.
Tbilisi's "Golden Age" did not last for more than a century. In 1226 Tbilisi was captured by the refugee Khwarezmian Empire Khwarezmian Shah Mingburnu and its defences severely devastated and prone to Mongol armies.From the late 14th until the end of the 18th century, Tbilisi came under the rule of various foreign invaders once again and on several occasions was completely burnt to the ground. In 1386, Tbilisi was invaded by the armies of Tamerlane (Timur). In 1444, the city was invaded and destroyed by Jahan Shah.
In 1801, after the Georgian kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti joined the Russian Empire, Tbilisi became the center of the Tbilisi Governorate (Gubernia). From the beginning of the 19th century Tbilisi started to grow economically and politically.The city was visited on numerous occasions by and was the object of affection of Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Mikhail Lermontov, the Romanov Family and others.

Throughout the century, the political, economic and cultural role of Tbilisi with its ethnic, confessional and cultural diversity was significant not only for Georgia but for the whole Caucasus. Hence, Tbilisi took on a different look.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the city served as a location of the Transcaucasus interim government which established, in the spring of 1918, the short-lived independent Transcaucasian Federation with the capital in Tbilisi. Tbilisi functioned as the capital of the Democratic Republic of Georgia until 25 February 1921.
Under the national government, Tbilisi turned into the first Caucasian University City after the Tbilisi State University was founded in 1918, a long-time dream of the Georgians banned by the Imperial Russian authorities for several decades.
Tbilisi is located in the South Caucasus at 41° 43' North Latitude and 44° 47' East Longitude. The city lies in Eastern Georgia on both banks of the Mt'k'vari River.The relief of Tbilisi is complex. The part of the city which lies on the left bank of the Mt'k'vari (Kura) River extends for more than 30 km (19 mi) from the Avchala District to River Lochini.
The climate of Tbilisi can be classified as moderately humid subtropical (Köppen climate classification  The city's climate is influenced both by dry (Central Asian/Siberian) air masses from the east and humid subtropical (Atlantic/Black Sea) air masses from the west.
The average annual temperature in Tbilisi is 12.7 °C (54.9 °F). January is the coldest month with an average temperature of 0.9 °C (33.6 °F). July is the hottest month with an average temperature of 24.4 °C (75.9 °F). The absolute minimum recorded temperature is −23 °C (−9 °F) and the absolute maximum is 40 °C (104 °F).May is the wettest month (90 mm) while January is the driest (20 mm). Snow falls on average 15–25 days per year. Tbilisi is a multicultural city. The city is home to more than 100 different ethnic groups. Around 89% of the population is ethnically Georgian, with significant populations of other ethnic groups such as Armenians, Russians, and Azeris.
More than 95% of the residents of Tbilisi practise various forms of Christianity (the most predominant of which is the Georgian Orthodox Church). The Russian Orthodox Church, which is in Full communion with the Georgian, and the Armenian Apostolic Church have significant following within the city as well.
Tbilisi has a fairly rich sports history. Like many other towns of the Near East with strong Asian cultural influences, Tbilisi historically had a special area of town that was designated for sports competitions. The Soviet period brought an increased popularization of sports that were common in Europe and to a certain extent, the United States. At the same time, Tbilisi developed the necessary sports infrastructure for various professional sports.The most popular sports in Tbilisi today are football, rugby union, basketball, and wrestling. Also popular sports include tennis, swimming and water polo. There are several professional football and rugby teams as well as wrestling clubs.
Tbilisi's signature football team, Dinamo Tbilisi, has not won a major European championship since 1981, when it won the European Cup Winners' Cup and became the easternmost team in Europe to achieve the feat.