As I drove through the remote Imereti r

egion of central-western Georgia, rolling hills and lush pine forests flanked the empty roads and grazing cows dotted the verdant landscape. It was a picture-perfect rural scene. Suddenly, the car rounded a bend and an incongruous sight appeared high above the canopy: up ahead, a massive limestone monolith jutted into the sky, about 40m tall, with a small church perched on the top.