Samachablo is a Georgian historical district in Shida Kartli

Shida Kartli

Shida Kartli is a region in Georgia. It consists of the following districts: Gori, Kaspi, Kareli, Java, Khashuri.The northern part of the region, namely Java, and northern territories of Kareli and Gori, is controlled by the authorities of the self-proclaimed republic of South Ossetia since...

, Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

, which currently lies entirely within the disputed South Ossetia Region

South Ossetia

South Ossetia or Tskhinvali Region is a disputed region and partly recognized state in the South Caucasus, located in the territory of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the former Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic....

. The name Samachablo (literally, "of Machabeli") derives from the Georgian aristocratic family of Machabeli

Machabeli

Machabeli was a Georgian princely house which held a large fiefdom in the province of Inner Kartli called Samachablo after their family name....

 who once held possession of the area. With the rise of Georgian-Ossetian interethnic tensions in the late 1980s, the name was revived by the Georgians and has sometimes been semi-officially used since then.

This territory is currently referred to as Tskhinvali

Tskhinvali

Tskhinvali , is the capital of South Ossetia, a disputed region which has been recognised as an independent Republic by Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Nauru, and is regarded by Georgia and the rest of the world as part of the Shida Kartli region within Georgian sovereign territory.It is located...

region by Georgian authorities after the name of its only city.