The tomb of King David IV — David the Builder, who founded Gelati in 1106 and under whose reign the Georgian Kingdom reached its greatest extent — is set into the ground at the main entrance gateway to the monastery. A carved stone slab marks the grave, and centuries of pilgrims have walked over it as David intended.
David is one of the most revered figures in Georgian history: he drove the Seljuk Turks from Georgia, united the country, and sponsored the cultural flowering that makes Gelati worth visiting. The church he built, the academy he endowed, and the tomb he chose together form one of the most coherent expressions of medieval Georgian identity anywhere in the country.