Claim Over Medieval Queen Tamar’s Lost Tomb Puts Turkey’s Posof in Focus

Queen Tamar, who ruled from 1184 to 1213 AD, presided over the Georgian Golden Age — a period of unmatched political power, territorial expansion, and cultural brilliance. Despite her towering legacy, the location of her burial has never been confirmed. While the Gelati Monastery near Kutaisi in western Georgia remains the strongest traditional candidate, a second tradition places her relics at the Monastery of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. Now, a borderland claim in northeastern Türkiye has added a new layer to the centuries-old puzzle.

A Borderland Legend Revived

The renewed attention centers on Yolağzı village in Posof, where local headman Fehim Gündüz has highlighted regional lore placing Tamar’s tomb in the Kesikkayalar area. According to Gündüz, earlier Georgian research and local tradition pointed not to the commonly cited sites in Georgia, but to somewhere around Posof or the Artvin side facing it. Local accounts speak of a vast hidden settlement containing 205 rooms within the rock formations, which stretch approximately 800 meters in length and reach heights of around 150 meters.

Ardahan Provincial Culture and Tourism Director Uğur Dede recently inspected the site and noted that archaeological fieldwork conducted in 2024 with Ardahan University had identified significant medieval remains in the region. The area features structures locally known as “guard caves,” believed to have served a defensive or lookout role. Dede also referenced a local legend in which Queen Tamar passed through the region while being pursued by Iranian forces, during which a tunnel in Kesikkayalar was sealed. “Their being natural is not possible,” Dede said of the columns found during examinations at the site, indicating that further research and possible heritage registration are being considered.

The forested landscape around Kesikkayalar in Ardahan’s Posof district, where local traditions have long connected the area with Queen Tamar. (İHA via Türkiye Today)

What the Archaeological Survey Found

The most significant published source underpinning the current discussion is a 2026 study by İsaf Bozoğlu Bay, reporting on the 2024 season of the Posof Medieval Archaeological Survey. The survey examined more than 60 sites across 15 villages and documented castles, churches, inscriptions, tunnels, and rock-cut spaces, pointing to a medieval settlement and defense network controlling the valleys and passes of the Posof basin.

At Yolağzı village, researchers examined six locations, of which only Avazarlar and Kesikkayalar produced finds considered to be cultural heritage. At Kesikkayalar, the team focused on a natural cave known locally as the “First Guard Cave.” The cave lies in a steep, fragmented rock mass with a controlled, difficult approach. Inside, researchers recorded worked stone blocks with carved frames, dowel holes, and features consistent with a door, threshold, or architectural jamb. Six pottery sherds were also found near the entrance, suggesting the cave was used at some point for shelter or temporary occupation. However, the pottery is too limited to establish a firm date, and the narrow passages said to lead to a hidden lower settlement were found blocked by rubble, preventing further verification.

Gelati Monastery near Kutaisi, western Georgia, the traditional royal burial site of the Bagrationi dynasty and the most widely accepted candidate for Queen Tamar’s tomb. (CC BY 2.0)

A Queen Whose Grave Remains Elusive

Queen Tamar was the first woman to rule Georgia independently, crowned co-ruler by her father King George III in 1178 and sole ruler upon his death in 1184. Her reign brought Georgia to its greatest territorial extent, stretching from the Black Sea to the Caspian and into northern Persia. She abolished torture and the death penalty, supported religious tolerance, and patronized monasteries not only within Georgia but across the wider Christian world, from Palestine to Mount Athos. In Georgian memory, she was more than a monarch — medieval sources treated her with a near-sacred aura, and she was given the title mepe, meaning “king,” emphasizing sovereign authority rather than consort status. The Georgian Orthodox Church later canonized her as a saint.

Her burial tradition is tangled precisely because her life was so geographically and spiritually wide-ranging. A 13th-century letter from the French knight Guillaume de Bois suggests that her son, King Giorgi-Lasha, was transporting her remains to the Holy Land for burial near Jerusalem. Most scholars, however, still regard Gelati Monastery as the most plausible resting place, given its role as the principal necropolis of the Bagrationi dynasty. The Posof claim does not displace these traditions. It belongs to the borderland — to oral memory and a growing archaeological record that shows the region was far more active in the Middle Ages than many modern readers might assume. What would change the picture is controlled excavation, ceramic analysis, and inscriptions. Until then, Kesikkayalar remains a site where local tradition and archaeology have begun to overlap — and whether that overlap leads anywhere near Queen Tamar’s lost tomb is still an open question.

Top image: The four best-known medieval frescoes depicting Queen Tamar of Georgia, from the churches of Betania, Vardzia, Qintsvisi, and Bertubani.   Source: Public Domain