Akhaltsikhe (Georgian: ახალციხე, literally "new castle"; formerly known as Lomisa, Armenian: Ախալցխա,Turkish: Ahıska) is a small city in Georgia's southwestern region (mkhare) of Samtskhe-Javakheti. It is situated on the both banks of a small river Potskhovi, which separates the city to the old city in the north and new in the south. The city is first mentioned in the chronicles in the 12th century. In the 12th–13th centuries it was the seat of the Akhaltsikhelis, dukes ofSamtskhe, whose two most illustrious representatives were Shalva and Ivane Akhaltsikheli (of Akhaltsikhe). From the 13th up to the 17th century the city and Samtkhe were governed by the feudal family of theJaqelis. In 1576 the Ottomans took it and from 1628 the city became the centre of the Samtskhe Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire as "Ahıska". In 1828, during the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829, Russian troops under the command of General Paskevich captured the city and, as a consequence of the 1829 Treaty of Adrianople (Edirne), it was ceded to the Russian Empire as part of first Kutaisi and then Tbilisi governorates. In the old part of the city one can see an old fortress, castle and mosque, the old fortress of the Jakelis (13th–14th century), and St. Marine's Church. The hills nearby the city harbour the Sapara Monastery (10th–14th centuries).

In the late 1980s the city was host to the Soviet Army's 10th Guards Motor Rifle Division, which became a brigade of the Georgian land forces after the fall of the Soviet Union.