High atop this rock, sits the a church near the village of Katskhi, Georgia. As far back as the 5th century, a group of Christians known as Stylites, or pillar-saints, practiced a type of asceticism that involved detaching themselves from the world by living in these elevated places. Their lives were centered around praying, fasting and preaching. Saint Simeon Stylites was the first to observe this practice in about 421 AD and achieved notability for living 37 years on a small platform on top of a pillar near Aleppo.
Photograph by Andrei Bortnikau
