Editing Tamar of Georgia (section)

== Death and burial ==
[[File:Gelati Monastery 1.jpg |thumb|left|The [[Gelati Monastery]], a [[UNESCO]] [[World Heritage Site]], is a presumptive burial place of Queen Tamar.]]
Tamar outlived her consort, David Soslan, and died of a "devastating disease" not far from her capital [[Tbilisi]], having previously crowned her son, Lasha-Giorgi, [[Coregency|coregent]]. Tamar's historian relates that the queen suddenly fell ill when discussing state affairs with her ministers at the Nacharmagevi castle near the town of [[Gori, Georgia|Gori]], an illness her chronicle attributes to the toll years of military campaigns had on her body.<ref><iframe src="https://archive.org/details/georgia-12th-14th-centuries" width="560" height="384" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" allowfullscreen></iframe></ref> She was transported to Tbilisi and later to the nearby castle of Agarani where Tamar died and was mourned by her subjects. Her remains were transferred to the [[Svetitskhoveli Cathedral|cathedral]] of [[Mtskheta]] and later to the [[Gelati Monastery]], a family burial ground of the Georgian royal dynasty. The traditional scholarly opinion is that Tamar died in 1213, although there are several indications that she might have died earlier, in 1207 or 1210.<ref>{{harvnb|Javakhishvili|1983|pp=280, 291–292}}; {{harvnb|Vateĭshvili|2003|loc=p. 135 (Footnote #3}}; {{harvnb|Japaridze|2012|p=348}}.</ref>[[File:Vardzia (17).jpg|thumb|The ruined cave-town of [[Vardzia]].]]In later times, a number of legends emerged about Tamar's place of burial. One of them has it that Tamar was buried in a secret [[niche (architecture)|niche]] at the Gelati monastery so as to prevent the grave from being profaned by her enemies. Another version suggests that Tamar's remains were reburied in a remote location, possibly in the Holy Land. The [[French nobility|French knight]] Guillaume de Bois, in a letter dated from the early 13th century, written in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] and addressed to the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Besançon|bishop of Besançon]], claimed that he had heard that the king of the Georgians was heading towards Jerusalem with a huge army and had already conquered many cities of the [[Saracen]]s. He was carrying, the report said, the remains of his mother, the "powerful queen Tamar" (''regina potentissima Thamar''), who had been unable to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in her lifetime and had bequeathed her body to be buried near the [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre|Holy Sepulchre]].<ref>{{harvnb|Pahlitzsch|1996|p=38 (Footnote #17)}}; {{harvnb|Vateĭshvili|2003|pp=135–140}}.</ref>

In the 20th century, the quest for Tamar's grave became a subject of scholarly research, as well as the focus of broader public interest. The Georgian writer [[Grigol Robakidze]] wrote in his 1918 essay on Tamar: "Thus far, nobody knows where Tamar's grave is. She belongs to everyone and to no one: her grave is in the heart of the Georgian. And in the Georgians' perception, this is not a grave, but a beautiful vase in which an unfading flower, the great Tamar, flourishes."<ref>{{in lang|ka}} Robakidze, Grigol (13–15 May 1918), "[http://www.amsi.ge/istoria/gr/Tamar.html თამარ]" ("Tamar"). ''Sak'art'velo'' '''90'''/'''91'''.</ref> An orthodox academic view still places Tamar's grave at Gelati, but a series of archaeological studies, beginning with [[Ekvtime Takaishvili|Taqaishvili]] in 1920, has failed to locate it at the monastery.<ref>{{harvnb|Vateĭshvili|2003|p=135}}.</ref>