There is a place in Imereti that makes every list of top sights in Georgia. It’s Prometheus Cave, also known as Kumistavi Cave. Huge halls, stunning stalactites and stalagmites glowing in hundreds of colored lights. It’s hard to believe, but this natural wonder was discovered quite recently, and by pure chance. If a cow hadn’t once fallen into a hole, who knows whether we would be admiring all this today?
Prometheus Cave: tickets and opening hours
- Where: the village of Kumistavi near Tskaltubo, not far from Kutaisi. Coordinates: 42.376376, 42.600486.
- Ticket: 40 GEL, children’s ticket 5.5 GEL.
- Boat ride on the underground river: another 30 GEL.
- Opening hours: daily, 10:00 to 17:00, until 18:00 in summer.
- How much time you need: about an hour and a half for the whole walk, a bit more with the boat.
- With kids: officially, children under 6 are not allowed.
- What to bring: a sweater. It’s 14–17°C inside all year round, even in the July heat.
Amirani – the Georgian Prometheus
Since ancient times, the legends and myths of different peoples have come down to us, first passed by word of mouth and later written down. The close ties between Ancient Greece, the South Caucasus and the Scythian settlements gave birth to legendary characters that appear in both Greek and Caucasian myths.
One of them is the legendary Prometheus. Most likely, it was in the Caucasus that the ancient Greeks heard the legend of Amirani (Georgian), Abrskil (Abkhaz), Mher (Armenian) – a hero who fought the gods and was chained to the Caucasus Mountains for his love and compassion for people. Amirani became the prototype of the Greek Prometheus.
Of course, the myths differ. In Greek mythology, Prometheus steals the divine fire from Olympus, teaches people to use it and is chained to a rock. Every day an eagle comes to peck out his liver. When the liver grows back, the eagle returns.
In Caucasian mythology, Amirani and other heroes are chained inside the mountains, that is, in a cave. And here too an eagle comes to peck at his liver. The Georgian myth has one more character – the loyal dog Kursha, who tirelessly licks the iron chain to free his master. But on the day his efforts should succeed and the link should break, God sends blacksmiths who renew the chains. And the dog starts licking the chain all over again.
Prometheus Cave in Georgia – how it was discovered
In 2010, when the Georgian government decided to make the country attractive to tourists, it was decided to link the karst caves of Imereti with the name of this legendary hero. But the name Amirani means nothing to foreigners.
So they decided to attract tourists with the name of Prometheus, whose prototype was Amirani. Anyone who went to school knows who Prometheus is.
The karst caves of Imereti, discovered in the second half of the 20th century, were chosen to become one of Georgia’s attractions. This was especially important after Georgia lost the already famous New Athos Cave in Abkhazia.
The underground chambers found near the village of Kumistavi were a perfect fit for a tourist attraction.
A whole system of underground halls and passages has long interested cavers, so Kumistavi Cave suits both ordinary tourists and people who love speleology and unexplored caves.
The karst caves of Kumistavi are about 20 halls with a total length of more than 11 km. Inside, the humidity is high, there are underground rivers, lakes and waterfalls.
The tourist trail is almost one and a half kilometers long. In New Athos Cave visitors ride a little train, while in Kumistavi you can take a boat.
The trail in Prometheus Cave was designed by lighting specialists from Europe. With LEDs and music they created dynamic, magical compositions that go perfectly with this natural wonder.
In Kumistavi Cave there are walks along the “civilized” tourist trail, as well as expeditions into halls kept in their wild state. Mikheil Saakashvili’s government planned to develop medical tourism here (speleotherapy), but never got to it.
Kumistavi – getting to know the cave
The modern Prometheus Cave was one of Mikheil Saakashvili’s projects and opened to visitors on May 26, 2011. The Kumistavi caves are 11 km long in total, and the trail equipped for regular visitors is 1.5 km long. There are about 20 halls, underground rivers and even a lake. The “wild” caves can be explored by cavers.
All the caves have the same high humidity and the same temperature: 14–17 degrees. It feels cool in summer and relatively warm in winter. If you visit in summer, bring a warm sweater: the tour is long and it’s easy to get chilly. The tourist part of the cave has almost no branches, and the walls and ceiling are covered with stalactites, stalagmites, stalagnates and flowstone, both bumpy and smooth.
As it should be, Prometheus Cave is home to bats. But they don’t like people and hide in quiet corners. If you’re lucky, you’ll spot them.
You can’t enter Prometheus Cave on your own, only with a guide. Tours are held in Georgian, English or Russian. Often a guide runs one tour in two languages at once, depending on how many visitors there are. Groups start every 15–30 minutes, depending on the season.
You buy the ticket and start the tour in the building shown below, next to the parking lot. Parking is free.
First the guide takes you down the stairs to the cave entrance, gives a short briefing and tells the story of how the cave was discovered. Only then does the walk through the cave begin.
The standard visit to Prometheus Cave is the walking trail. If you want to ride along the underground river, choose the tour with a boat.
You pay for the boat ride when you buy your ticket. The price is 30 GEL per person. Even though the ride only takes about 10 minutes, it’s worth it. In places the ceiling hangs very low and you could hit your head. So don’t take your helmet off during the ride.
That said, such a high water level isn’t common. It happens mostly in autumn and winter, during the rainy season. In summer there’s much less water and the ceilings are much higher. By the way, in spring, when the snow melts in the mountains, the water can rise so much that the cave is closed to visitors.
Six halls of the cave are open to tourists. Each has its own name. During the walk the guide explains where each name comes from, though many of them are a bit far-fetched.
One of the most spacious halls of Kumistavi Cave is called the “Hall of Love”, where newlyweds like to register their marriage. It lets them boast that their marriage was made both in heaven and underground. The ceremony costs from 100 GEL.
The tour through the beautifully lit cave ends at a pier on the underground river. Those who skipped the boat ride walk up to the exit. The others go a little lower, get into a boat and float to the exit. At the exit, a little train or a minibus picks visitors up and takes them back to the reception.
About kids! Even though there’s nothing extreme in the cave, children under 6 are not allowed. There’s no such age limit in Sataplia Cave, so kids can see the cave in the dinosaur park. The rule isn’t always enforced strictly. If your child is 5, nobody is likely to make a fuss.
A ticket to Prometheus Cave costs 40 GEL, a boat ride on the underground river is another 30 GEL. A children’s ticket is 5.5 GEL.
Opening hours: 10:00 to 17:00 in winter, until 18:00 in summer. Open daily.
You can take photos in the caves, but without flash or a tripod. There are spots on the handrails of the trail where you can steady your camera. Filming video is not allowed.
Prometheus Cave on the map
Here is a map of attractions across all of Georgia, divided by region. To find Prometheus Cave (Kumistavi), choose the Imereti region and find it in the list. To open the full list, click the button in the top left corner of the map.
Coordinates: 42.376376, 42.600486
How to get to Prometheus Cave
To visit Prometheus Cave, go to Kutaisi, in the Imereti region in the center of Georgia. It’s best to get to Kutaisi by car or minibus. The train isn’t the most convenient option even for locals, let alone tourists.
Going to the cave from the Kutaisi bus station is cheaper than from the railway station. At the bus station you can hire a taxi that will take you there, wait and bring you back. A taxi costs about 30–50 GEL. Keep in mind that prices go up every year and can climb much higher depending on how cheeky the driver is.
Most organized tours don’t go to the cave alone. They usually add 2–3 nearby sights: Sataplia park and cave, Martvili Canyon or Okatse Canyon, and less often the churches around Kutaisi – Bagrati, Gelati, Motsameta. The easiest way is to go from Kutaisi: it’s very close, so tours from there are cheaper. A day trip from Batumi is the most popular option, but it takes 11–13 hours. Going from Tbilisi is the least convenient: such trips usually have a simpler program and last 12–15 hours.
Prometheus Cave in photos
What else to see nearby
Since the cave is in Imereti, first of all it’s worth getting to know the region’s capital, Kutaisi, a city more than 3,000 years old.
You can see the sights of Kutaisi in two days, split by theme:
Day 1: caves and prehistory (Sataplia, Prometheus Cave, an evening walk around the city);
Day 2: the Golden Age of Georgia (Gelati, Motsameta Monastery, Bagrati) or nature – Martvili Canyon, Okatse Canyon and the Kinchkha waterfalls. You can go a bit further to Zugdidi and see the magnificent Dadiani Palace.
You can stop in Kutaisi on the way from Tbilisi to Batumi or to Svaneti. You can also stop there on the way from Batumi to Tbilisi, Svaneti or Racha. But don’t stay in the city for more than two days, or you’ll waste precious time. On the evening of the second day you can move on.
A tip for fans of unusual routes: right next to Kumistavi is Tskaltubo. In Soviet times it was a famous spa resort. Now that its glory is in the past, there are many abandoned sanatoriums. Once grand and beautiful buildings are overgrown with ivy and stare with broken windows. Locals can point you to the most impressive ones to explore. But keep in mind that the resort is slowly coming back to life, and more and more abandoned buildings are being bought and fenced off for restoration. Every year there are fewer abandoned hotels you can get into.
More useful reading:
Racha – a magical Georgian region. Itinerary for 1-2 days
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I am Victor, the founder of this site and its main, but not the only author.
Traveler and photographer. Visited more than 60 countries.
Born and raised in Batumi. I love to travel in Georgia.
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