The old ("Pompey's") bridge of Mtskheta stands at the entrance to Mtskheta, in the island zone of the Mtkvari. It is now submerged by the river, and only a small part of it appears when the water level falls. In the scholarly literature and among the local population, the old bridge over the Mtkvari — almost always underwater since the construction of the Zemo Avchala hydroelectric station (1927) — is most often called "Pompey's bridge", although a bridge existed here before Pompey and the Roman general had no part in building it. The bridge must have been in use at least from the Hellenistic era (4th–3rd centuries BC), when trade took on an international character.