Khuchap Monastery, Medieval monastery in Marneuli Municipality, Georgia

Khuchap Monastery stands at the foot of Mount Lalvar, about 1 km from the nearest village. Its walled complex holds a domed church from the first half of the 13th century, built of golden and wine-coloured stone with a richly carved drum, plus the ruins of a 5th–6th-century hall church and traces of cells and a refectory.

The oldest church in the complex, a single-nave basilica, was built in the 9th–10th centuries and first served as a monastery of the Armenian faith. In the 13th century, under the Zakarian rule, it was converted into a Chalcedonian monastery. The main domed church dates from the 13th century, and the monastery was later deserted after an enemy invasion. In 1905 a Russian Orthodox convent was established there and operated until 1935, when the nuns were expelled and settled in the nearby village of Akhkerpi.

The name Khuchap derives, per Ivane Javakhishvili, from the Arabic plural of hajib, meaning gatekeeper or doorkeeper. The monastery was a Georgian Orthodox house of the Virgin of Iveria; in 1905 a Russian Orthodox convent was established there and lasted until 1935, when the nuns were expelled and settled in nearby Akhkerpi, setting up a chapel in one of the houses.

The monastery lies 1 km from the nearest village, Akhkerpi, at the foot of Mount Lalvar, and is reached on foot. The site is close to the Armenian border, where a 2005 shooting incident involving a Georgian TV crew was reported; some accounts put the border shift at 300 m, others at 400 m. Check the current border situation before setting out.

The donor inscription on the church wall was erased by Armenians in the 19th century, and Georgian asomtavruli lettering survives inside. In 2005 Armenian border guards fired on a Georgian television crew filming the monastery; reports said the border had been moved 300 to 400 metres in Armenia's favour.