Nino, a Georgian Girl at Uplistsikhe Cave City

“Nino Kipiani - a beautiful Georgian name, respectable parents with European tastes. What did it matter? Nino had fair skin, big laughing Caucasian eyes under long delicate lashes. Only Georgian girls have such sweet and gay eyes. No other girls, European or Asiatic. Delicate half-moon eyebrows and a Madonna’s profile. I was sad. The comparison made me feel melancholy. There are so many comparisons for a man of the Orient. But these women can only be likened to the Christian Mirjam, symbol of a strange and incomprehensible world.”

From ‘Ali and Nino’ by Kurban Said - a superbly romantic book.

Uplistsikhe Cave City is in Georgia near the Silk Road. It was a trading centre from about 5th century BC.

Photo 7 June 2009