1008-1236 CE
From 1008 to 1236 CE, the Georgians ascended to heights their mountain kingdom had never known — Bagrat III gathering the fractured principalities, David the Builder shattering Seljuk armies at Didgori, and Tamar reigning as king over an empire stretching from the Black Sea to the Caspian. Their churches gleamed with gold and frescoes; their poets sang of knights and lovers. Then the Mongols came, and Georgia's golden age ended in fire.