//
Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The main monastery is right behind the small parking lot. You can visit most of it; the rooms not allowed to tourists are clearly marked with "no entrance" signs, in both English and Georgian. See the tomb of the first monk to have lived there (St. David Garejeli). Then, you can follow the path starting right behind the church shop, that goes on the top of the small mountain. There, you have a wonderful view towards both Georgia and Azerbaijan. And you will see many troglodyte churches, some of them with paintings from the 11th and 12th centuries. Total time: about 1hr 30min, using a sometimes steep path.
David Gareji is a rock-hewn Georgian Orthodox monastery complex located in the Kakheti region of Eastern Georgia, on the half-desert slopes of Mount Gareja on the edge of the Iori Plateau, some 60–70 km southeast of Georgia's capital Tbilisi. The complex includes hundreds of cells, churches, chapels, refectories and living quarters hollowed out of the rock face.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
A separate part of the David Gareja Monastery Complex to the northwest of the main monastery, and dating to the 7th century. Includes a fresco of 12th-century Georgian king Tamar.