Monomad: Up on the forgotten hillside

I'm not entirely sure what the history of this monument is. I know that it is Soviet era, and to much surprise it was a huge series of fountains that operated and must've looked beautiful over the spring and summer months. Now it's mostly overlooked, ignored and left to rot. More a chore to reach the very top on muddy steps that are crumbling and weathering away. Nobody really comes this far up, there's no need anymore. People use the roadside at the top to pass through the area, though the monument is pretty much something of the past that nobody pays a second of attention to. I have been curious about it since I first noticed it when I arrived in Tbilisi. Perhaps I might throw together a more researched post into it at a later date.

I decided to walk up to the top for the first time. A very natural area. Though the views of the city from above are not enough to bring people here. Fortunately I saw no needles this high up. But the monument was riddled in low effort graffiti that definitely showed zero respect for what it symbolises. The pavement below with missing steps and slabs. In most of the upper area you can hardly even see the pavement anymore, where heavy rains and neglect have led to a strong layer of mud over it all. That's something you can see in the last image, a little bit of that original flooring seeping through. A hint at some history remains here. Though now occupied by stray dogs and used more as a dumping ground for whoever has some shit to ditch by the road. One person not too far had set up a little camp and decided to burn things as they overlooked the city, with views reaching through Vake and into Saburtalo.

There's a Soviet era cable car that still goes up the mountain to the top, where there's a lake a bit more to see and do. Mostly used for its hiking and biking trails. I can see why more people go there than walking up to the point I was at. There is nothing but sadness and decay here. Not that the lake is much better, where the old buildings spoke of a time where people would spend significant amounts of time for the leisure there. The cable cars pass over silently, offering more beautiful views of what's below, though also signifying the sheer scale of neglect over this area. I've done that same trip before and it led to my previous assumption that this entire area was never finished -- though it was, and very active according to photographs I've seen.

I don't usually feel a strong sense of isolation and sadness when roaming through these places. Most of the time they're too far gone and don't have much remaining history to take in. Though this area felt forgotten. Abandoned and rejected. As if to have stumbled into the natural world and found signs of an ancient civilisation, and all that was left was rotting symbolism. Little snippets of an era now gone. In some ways an unfinished puzzle with how overgrown and hidden much of it all felt. In some ways it was like looking up at that cable car passing over and thinking it was intentionally avoiding this area, trying to escape it.