Machkhani is a monument of Georgian architecture, a small hall church near the village of Tsodoreti. According to its inscriptions, the church was built in 853, in the era of Arab rule — one of the earliest and precisely dated monuments in the environs of Tbilisi. It is built of porous tuff; certain parts — the cornice, the inscribed architrave of the south entrance, the inscribed slab on the east facade and the facing of the upper walls — are of denser, yellowish stone, while inside the vaults and the conch of the apse are of cobblestone. Traces of later painting (11th century) survive in the interior. Near the church is an abandoned village site.