Discover Armenia
On May 16th the participants of project Get Insight & Get Inside visited 2 very beautiful and historical places of Armenia. Leaving aside the city's neighborhoods Nork, Nor-Nork and the village Dzhrvezh, the wide Garni highway gradually climbs to the Vokhjaberd ridge. In the vicinity of the village Voghjaberd, left of the road, a cave complex is visible which served as a shelter in the Middle Ages.
At one of the passes right by the road there is the Arch of Charents (architect R. Israelian, 1957), from which opens a breathtaking view of the Ararat valley with Ararat (aka Masis) soaring on the horizon. The arc of the Arch of Charents bears the following words: "Pass the whole world with its mountains white, to the beauty of Masis equals none!"
The next stop was in Garni temple which is a classical Hellenistic temple in Garni, Armenia. Reconstructed in the 1970s, as the only known Greco-Roman colonnaded temple in Armenia.
It is perhaps the best-known structure and symbol of pre-Christian Armenia. It was probably built by king Tiridates I in the first century AC as a temple to the sun god Mihr. After Armenia's conversion to Christianity in the early fourth century, it was converted into a royal summer house of Khosrovidukht, the sister of Tiridates III. According to some scholars it was not a temple but a tomb and thus survived the universal destruction of pagan structures. It collapsed in a 1679 earthquake. Renewed interest in the 19th century led to its eventual reconstruction between 1969 and 1975. It is one of the main tourist attractions in Armenia and the central shrine of Armenian neopaganism.
Another place we visited was Geghard.
Geghard is a medieval monastery in the Kotayk province of Armenia, being partially carved out of the adjacent mountain, surrounded by cliffs. It is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
While the main chapel was built in 1215, the monastery complex was founded in the 4th century by Gregory the Illuminator at the site of a sacred spring inside a cave. The monastery had thus been originally named Ayrivank meaning "the Monastery of the Cave". The name commonly used for the monastery today, Geghard, or more fully Geghardavank, meaning "the Monastery of the Spear", originates from the spear which had wounded Jesus at the Crucifixion, allegedly brought to Armenia by Apostle Jude, called here Thaddeus, and stored amongst many other relics. Now it is displayed in the Echmiadzin treasury.
The spectacular towering cliffs surrounding the monastery are part of the Azat River gorge, and are included together with the monastery in the World Heritage Site listing. Some of the churches within the monastery complex are entirely dug out of the cliff rocks, others are little more than caves, while others are elaborate structures, with both architecturally complex walled sections and rooms deep inside the cliff. The combination, together with numerous engraved and free-standing khachkars is a unique sight, being one of the most frequented tourist destinations in Armenia.
Anna Barseghyan
