Tbilisi

Tbilisi (Georgian თბილისი) is the capital city of Georgia, located on the Kura river. The city has more than 1.25 million inhabitants. The Russian name for Tbilisi, sometimes also seen in Western texts, is Tiflis.

The origins of the city are probably from the 4th century BCE. The city has been the capital of several Georgian states through history, but has also been occupied by many foreign rulers, including Arabs and Turks. In 1801, it came under Russian control. After the Russian Revolution, Georgia was briefly independent, and Tbilisi functioned as the capital city. It remained the capital city of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic, and later the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, after its incorporation in the Soviet Union The city was restored as the Georgian capital after the country's 1991 independence.

Georgians pronounce Tbilisi with a barely-spoken 't', so that it almost sounds like "Bill-EE-see"; English speakers often mispronounce it like "Tib-LEE-see", but this is incorrect.