KUTAIS  , a

town of Russian Caucasia, capital of the government of the same name, 6o m. by rail E. of Poti and 5 M. from the Rion station of the railway between Poti and Tiflis . Pop . (1897), 32,492 . It is one of the oldest towns of Caucasia, having been the ancient capital (Aea or Kutaea) of Colchis, and later the capital of Imeretia (from ?92); Procopius mentions it under the name of Kotatision . Persians, Mongols, Turks and Russians have again and again destroyed the town and its fortress . In 18ro it became Russian . It is situated on both banks of the Rion river, which is spanned by three bridges . Its most remarkable building is the ruined cathedral, erected in the 11th century by the Bagratids, the ruling dynasty of Georgia, and destroyed by the Turks in 1692; it is the most important representative extant of Georgian architecture . The fort, mentioned by Procopius, is now a heap of ruins, destroyed by the Russians in 1770 . The inhabitants make hats and silks, and trade in agricultural produce and wine . On the right bank of the Rion is a government model garden, with a model farm . KUT-EL-AMARA, a small town in Turkish Asia, on the east bank of the Tigris (32° 29' 19" N., 44 45' 37" E.) at the point where the Shaft-el-Hai leaves that stream .

It is a coaling station of the steamers plying between

Basra and Bagdad, and 'an important Turkish post for the control of the lower Tigris .