Gavazi, Old Gavazi, is a historical village in Kakheti. It stood on the territory of modern Akhalsopeli (Kvareli municipality), on both banks of the Avaniskhevi (Gavazistskali), a left tributary of the Alazani. From the early Middle Ages Gavazi's rise was favored by its advantageous position on the boundary of the Caucasus and the Alazani valley. In the 6th century an important architectural monument was built at Gavazi — the church known as Old Gavazi. In Georgian written sources Gavazi is first mentioned in the 9th century, when the chorepiscopus Samoel Donauri defeated the Arabs there. In the 10th century, after the campaign of the chorepiscopus Kvirike and Konstantine, king of the Abkhazians, in Hereti, Gavazi and Arishi fell to Konstantine's share. A building inscription found at Gavazi, dated 1025, tells us that notable construction was under way here. Gavazi's importance grew especially in the 15th–16th centuries. It lay on the road from Gremi, capital of the kingdom of Kakheti, toward Iran. Along the road — paved with fired clay slabs and guarded by watchtowers — caravanserais were set at each day's journey, and one such caravanserai stood at Gavazi. After Shah Abbas's devastation of Kakheti, Gavazi's importance declined, and the Lezgin raids laid it waste. In the 18th century Gavazi's population resettled on the Alazani plain, where a village of the same name grew up. Archaeological excavations in 1969–1972 (led by L. Chilashvili) established that the territory of Gavazi was settled as early as the Bronze Age. The main quarters of 9th–16th-century Gavazi were excavated: the market (the modern "Nabazrali"), Darbazovani (the fortress, church and palace complexes), Sameba (a church, a caravanserai, a craftsmen's quarter) and the agrarian zone — "Kopale" (estates enclosed by dry-stone walls, an irrigation system).