One of the 13 Syrian Fathers (nice to have 13 here! 😅) who brought Christianity to Georgia was David. It is clear that this was not an easy or peaceful process; one of them put out the eternal fire in a Zoroastrian temple and was stoned by the governor for it. After being accused in Tbilisi, where he preached, David went to the Gareja wasteland (here) and founded this monastery (Lavra Monastery, 6th century). The idea seemed to become fashionable, and his students founded a total of twelve cave monasteries nearby. And the conditions were not easy! The water problem was solved by using extremely long gutters across the entire sandstone rock slanted towards the southwest (like gutters on a roof! Except that the "rock roof" is 50x100m - so even when it rarely rains, a lot of water accumulates!) into the cisterns. Gardens were laid out in the shade of the rocks, etc.
In the 9th century, the caves were expanded and decorated with frescoes.