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

Flying over the Caucasus Moumtains

We hadn't intended visiting Armenia but it was a guaranteed way to get out of Russia before our visas expired and into Geogia (flights to Armenia are International flights whereas those to Georgia are domestic and subject to cancellation). We wished it could have been a much longer visit, Flying into Georgia over the Caucasus Mountains was quite amazing for me as they were the stuff of legends telling of distance places. The roots of or the deliniation of Caucasians.  But here we were! Armenia and Georgia nestled among the Caucasus Mountains, are sandwiched between the Black and Caspian Seas and over the millenia have been a vital corridor between Asia and Europe and between Islam and Christianity.

Armenia and Georgia (and Azerbijan) are buried in the mountainous corridor

The biblical Mt Ararat pretending to be a cloud

We arrived in Yerevan about 10pm and were whisked away to our hotel and promptly served a lavish 3-course meal. I have to say that the service we have had throughout this trip has been superb (thank you Sundowners Overland) but tonight we were dead on our feet and just wanted to fall into bed - but one can't be rude. So we sat through a delicious array of courses. Over the next two days 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 top of millennia of history. It is a nation which hung 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 the ancient Mt Ararat keeps watch over the renewed capital a mere 60 Kms 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 and glow to the city.

Our first day we toured the city's highlights including a visit to Matenadaran, Meshrop Mashtots Institute of ancient Manuscripts. This is an absolutely fascinating repository of ancient manuscripts - religious, mathematical, scientific, botanical. I could have spent hours there. As we toured our guide gave us a packed albeit potted account of her country's history and culture from many millennia BC up to today.  Something which quite fascinated me is not that Armenia has its own language but that it has its own alphabet of 39 letter developed around 450 AD by Mesrop Mashtots.

Mesrop Mashtots developed the Armeniaan alphabet and language 405 AD

On display were many botanical and geological specimens used to extract coloured pigments

Education is a precious commodity in Armenia and there are many academies, universities and colleges. Our guide has a Masters degree from Padua University 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 traditional instruments - drum and duduk, an ancient flute made from the wood of apricot trees. It produces a beautiful and plaintive sound.

Armenia boasts an enormous collection of ancient manuscripts which are used by international scholars

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 (the best I have ever tasted), cherries and strawberries. 

As the first Christian nation, 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 inextricably woven through with their Christian roots. (I remember the first time I was made aware of Armenia. I was listening to an interview about Komitas and it sowed the seed of curiosity and a dream to visit the country. We will visit again in 2025)  We visited many ancient churches and monasteries a few of which have been UNESCO World Heritage listed to ensure the protection of cultural and natural history. We found many such places here - also in Georgia in subsequent days.

Lake Sevan

We had but two 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 northeast to the border we passed areas where obsidian and moonstone are mined near Lake Sevan. Lake Sevan is absolutely beauitful.  It is one of the largest freshwater high-altitude (2000m) lakes in Eurasia and certainly the largest in the Caucasus region. It provides 90% of fish and 80% of crayfish catch of Armenia.  Copper is mined to 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 around 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. 

Beneath the  monastry floor were wine vats - also used to hide treasures from invaders

Haghpat Monastry - doors to the church

Thus ended a very special albeit far too short visit to this ancient place and culture. We then walked across the River Debed from Bagratashen in Armenia to Sadakhlo in Georgia where we picked up for the 50 km trip into Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. 

At the border of Armenia there is a sign with a map of the country. It is an interesting shape. Once it was considerably larger than it is today spreading west along the Black Sea but in the early 1900s it was seized by the Turks. To the east, Azerbijan as bitten off large chunks of and continues to nibble at its border.  Yet this tenacious little country hangs on. And we are about to go over the border to another country, also once part of the Soviet Union, a country which similarly has big dogs snapping at its borders. In fact two large chunks, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, once autonomous regions of Georgia, have been the subject of conflict and international dispute since the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Enough! we are about to enter Georgia, the next and last phase of our journey.

The red lines denote the borders of Armenia and Georgia