June 22-23 2016   Armenia - millennia of history in two days!

Mt Ararat pretending to be a cloud

We whirled through Yerevan, a city and culture of Biblical proportions, pockmarked with the remnants of the Soviet period but celebrating renewal and a return to its roots - this is a new Presidential Republic sitting on millennia of history. A nation which has hung on tenaciously while powerful neighbours bit off large chunks of their land and continue to nibble at their borders, through periods when there was little to eat -  there is a sense of renewed hope and an immense and palpable national pride. And towering in the background, Mt Ararat keeps watch a mere 60 Ks away. 

Yerevan is often referred to as the 'Pink City' because many of the new buildings are constructed in pink tufa, a porous limestone rock; most of the structures built during the Soviet period are of black tufa. The soft pink stone brings a symbolic lightness to the capital city.

As we toured the city's highlights, which included a visit to the absolutely fascinating repository of ancient manuscripts - religious, mathematical, scientific, botanical - our guide gave us a packed albeit potted account of her country's history and culture from many millennia BC up to today. Education is a precious commodity in Armenia and there are many academies, universities and colleges; our guide has a Masters degree from Padua where she examined the links between traditional dance and culture and what information folk dances reveal about the local culture. She is collecting/documenting many dances for posterity - much like Komitas' exploration and collections of Armenian folk music. We were treated to a performance of traditional dance and song accompanied by tradition instruments - drum and duduk, an ancient flute made from the wood of apricot trees and which produces a beautiful and plaintive sound.

Armenia boasts an enormous collection of ancient manuscripts

Our lessons in history were thus richly supplemented with stories of age-old traditions, the glue that has kept the Armenians strong at heart. We tasted delicious soup made from yogurt, wheat, and coriander, watched coffee being cooked in sand, sampled brandy from the Mt Ararat brandy distillery and at every meal sat down to a veritable feast which always included tomato and cucumber salad, local apricots, cherries and strawberries. 

As the first Christian nation, their Christianity is intrinsic to the psyche of the people and their country in spite of almost a century of Soviet rule which saw a number of churches 'closed'. Their history is inexplicably woven through with their Christian roots. We visited many ancient churches and monasteries a few of which have been UNESCO listed on the World Heritage List of the Convention concerning the protection of world cultural and natural history for the benefit of all humanity. We found many such places also in Georgia in subsequent days.

We had but 2 days to see what we could of Armenia before crossing the border Into Georgia. Just as a matter of interest, Armenia is also referred to as Hayastan - the land of the Hayar people, the Armenians. The economy is based on mining and agriculture and as we traveled north east to the border we passed areas where obsidian and moonstone are mined near Lake Sevan. Copper is mined in the north around the Lori region as well as in the south. As we got into the foothills of the Lesser Caucasus mountains we traveled through forests of beech, plane, pine, oak, elm - it was quite breathtaking!

Haghpat, one of the numerous UNESCO listed monasteries

After a sumptuous lunch overlooking an immense valley in the Lori region, we spent a magical hour wandering the UNESCO listed Haghpat monastery complex where our guide sang a most beautiful ancient love song which echoed up into the soaring vaults of the church - it was very special and took our breath away. Thus ended a very special albeit far too short visit to this ancient place and culture. We walked across the river Debed from Bagratshan in Armenia to Sadakhlo in George from where we had only a short trip of about 50 km to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. So stared the next phase of our journey.