Unification of Georgia by Bagrat III

Timeline

1. 1000–1008Kutaisi · GeorgiaBagrat was already king of Abkhazia and, as the Bagrationi heir of Iberia, had long cultivated both the coasts and the interior. His father Gurgen was aging, and the legacy of David III of Tao also passed into Bagrat's sphere through Byzantine and local arrangements; unification only awaited the formal merging of the crowns.
2. 1008Kutaisi · GeorgiaGurgen died in 1008, and Bagrat III inherited the Iberian (Kartli) throne while keeping the Abkhazian crown, uniting both crowns in one person. Contemporary and later histories treat this year as the founding marker of the unified Georgian kingdom, with its capital at Kutaisi.
3. 1008–1010Kutaisi · GeorgiaThe unified kingdom still had to integrate peripheral territories such as Kakheti and Tao-Klarjeti and contend with Byzantine pressure in the southwest. Bagrat used Kutaisi as his political center, establishing a dynastic state framework spanning both sides of the Likh Range and laying the foundation for Georgia's 11th-century prosperity.