Armenian poster "Noah's Rote" wins "Peoples Choice" Award

On October 8-14, Korea hosted the 19th session of the UN World Tourism Organisation General Assembly, with representatives of 154 countries participating. On session sidelines, an online voting for Vettor Giusti tourism posters competition was organised with Armenia announced as the winner of People’s Choice Award nomination. UNWTO Secretary General Talib Rifai handed the prize to Armenia’s Deputy Minister of Economy Ara Petrosyan.

Today Sevan with its surrounding is a beautiful resort with hotels, motels, holiday houses, tourist centers and restaurants for holiday makers with different financial means. Lake Sevan is beautiful in any season and in any waether, but of course, most of the holiday makers visit the sight in summer season.

For the inhabitants of Armenia Sevan is a place where one can escape from heat and problems; for numerous tourists from abroad it’s a place to go on piligrimage and on opportunity to enjoy the wonderful natural panorama of the blue lake. By the way, this lake has a special light-turquoise color which greatly impresses everybody who sees it for the first time.

St. Astvatsatsin (Mother of God) monastery overlooking Sevan Lake. Erected in 874 AD on orders of Princess Mariam of Sunik, daughter of King Ashot Bagratuni.

The mountains sourrounding Sevan, its mineral resources, clear air and unique natural environment make it even more charming (there is an artifical food of pine-tees and see-buckthorn of the lake’s shore).

Much has been done for the last few years to make Sevan an international tourissm center: it has been developed the infrasttructure, a lot has been done to raise the level of service in hotels and holiday houses built around the lake for the present. There are also luxurious villas among them.

One can make a trip  around the lake by quite different transportation means – by bycicle, motorcycle or by car over the ring road or by rowing boats or sailing vassels along the shore. The length of the trip by all the means of transportation makes no longer than 200 kilometers. People come here to have a rest, swim, sunbathe and to taste the excellently cooked trout, crawfish, and other gifts of the lake.

Swimming season opens in mid-June and lasts till mid-September. In summer the temperature of water on the lake’s surface  makes 18-20 ºC. The temperature of air falls down in the evening and one needs to have warmer clothes with him.

As Sevan is a mountain lake, it is very easy to get sunburn here, so do yourself a favor don’t stay in the sun long the first few days not to suffer later.

In comparison with other resorts, Sevan is also famous for many numerous cultural and hstorical monuments on its territory.

One day at lake Sevan, Video by Ani Nurik (Նուռիկ) Boghossian

Entering the Stepanavan Dendropark

Stepanavan Dendropark

Stepanavan Dendropark

Stepanavan Dendropark

Stepanavan Dendropark - Pinus Nigra Tree

This collection expanded along the newly-constructed footpaths and vistas which began to reach into the natural forest and is thought to be the first place in the Transcaucasus, where a natural forest landscape had been reshaped into a Forest Park.

Stepanavan Dendropark - triple tree

Stepanavan Dendropark - trees to the skies

Stepanavan Dendropark - Picea Pungens tree (եղևնի փշոտ)

The Stepanavan Dendropark consists of deciduous forest and ornamental plantings with avenues of Lime (Tilia cordata), and wild sourced specimens of Juglans, Malus, Populus and Pyrus.

Stepanavan Dendropark - Acez Pseudoplatanus (սպիտակ թխկի)

Stepanavan Dendropark - Quezcus Cezzis (Ավստրիական թխկի)

The center of the Stepanavan Dendropark

Stepanavan Dendropark - Deutzia Scabra (Դեյցիա)

Stepanavan Dendropark green roads

Stepanavan Dendropark

Most specimens were acquired from other botanic gardens as part of an international exchange programmes with the Botanic Garden in Tbilisi, (Georgia), Kiev (Ukraine), Nikitski, (Crimea, Ukraine), Leningrad and Moscow Central (Soviet Union) as well as the Far East.

Stepanavan Dendropark - a little creek

Stepanavan Dendropark - chained trees

Stepanavan Dendropark - a little bridge

Stepanavan Dendropark

Specimens were also obtained further afield from Germany, France, Portugal, China and the U.S.A. There are now more than 500 introduced species.

Stepanavan Dendropark - fallen acorns

neer the Gyulagarak village

Gyulagarak village panorama

Neer the Stepanavan city

Neer the Stepanavan city

Surb Sargis church, Stepanavan city

Little lakes neer the Stepanavan city

Sunset on little lakes neer the Stepanavan city

Stepanavan - Tashir highway

Text from wikipedia

Dozens of carpets from various villages of Artsakh are displayed. Local carpets, some of which date back a hundred of years, are remarkable for rich ornament and color saturation.

With opening of the museum, Nagorno Karabakh proves its being a center of Armenian culture.

The total area of the observatory in Armenia is 7 hectares. According to the scientist’s findings, a temple consisting of 40 stones built in honor of the Armenians’ main God, Ari, meaning the Sun, is situated in the central part of Carahunge (Karahunj or Zorats Karer). Besides the temple, it had a large and developed observatory, and also a university that makes up the temple’s wings.

From ArmeniaPedia

“They sit like soldiers on a hill, huddled in formation. The 204 stones near Sissian have been ascribed with mystical, fertility and cosmic powers, but rarely have ancient monuments caused such a sensation in astronomical circles.

Photos by Vardan Papikyan | EnjoyArmenia.com Armenia travel guide and photo-stories

Learn more about Karahunj (Zorats Karer) Observatory on TravelTrends >

Aragats mountains nature

Mount Aragats (Armenian: Արագած) is a large andesitic-to-dacitic^[2] stratovolcano in NW Armenia about 40 km NW of the capital city of Yerevan. It is the highest point in Armenia, located in the province of Aragatsotn, northwest from Yerevan. Located on its slopes are the Byurakan Observatory and the medieval Amberd Fortress. The observatory is a historically significant facility responsible for a number of important photographic surveys. Mount Aragats is a popular destination for tourists, especially in summer. (from Wikipedia)

Aparan mountains nature

Mountainus nature of Aragats, Aparan region

The 4095-m-high main edifice of Aragats is dissected by glaciers and is of Pliocene-to-Pleistocene age. However, parasitic cones and fissures are located on all sides of the volcano and were the source of large lava flows that descended its lower flanks.

Aparan water reservoir

Aparan water reservoir

Aparan (Armenian: Ապարան, also known as Abaran; until 1935, Bash Aparan; formerly, Aparanbol, Aparan Verin, Aparanpol, Abaran Verin, P’araznavert, K’asakh, Kasagh, and K’asagh) is a town in Armenia, located in the Aragatsotn province, about 50 kilometers north-north-west of Yerevan. It has a mixed population of Armenians and Kurds, numbering 5,711 as of the 2001 census.^[1]. The city was called Bash Aparan (Բաշ Ապարան; also Romanized as Bash Abaran, Pash Aparan, and Dash Abaron) until 1935. The inhabitants of Aparan, are known as Aparantsi (Ապարանցի). (from Wikipedia).

Aparan water reservoir

Aparan water reservoir - a great place for fishing

Bee-farm near the Aparan water reservoir

Photos by Vardan Papikyan

Ghazachetsots Monastery - Shushi, Artsakh Republic

That’s Shushi (Շուշի), not sushi. The residents have no idea that sushi even exists in this ancient walled town that is historically the cultural capital of the region. To this day it is very important, housing the beautiful Holy Amenaprkich Ghazanchetsots Cathedral (and Bishop) of Asrtakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

Shushi city's old streets

The Azerbaijani turks population, which called the city Shusha (Şuşa), fled in 1992 when the town was taken by Armenian forces and only the 3 mosques and numerous destroyed buildings testify to the fighting and subsequent drop in population. This was one of the few towns here with a mixed population, towns and villages tended to be more homogenous. Most of todays few thousand Armenian residents of Shushi lost their homes in Baku and Kirovabad and are refugees from Azerbaijan.

The canyon neer the city Shushi (Shushi's big canyon), Artsakh - Nagorno Karabakh Republic

The art created in Armenia’s historical province of Artsakh, the largest part of which is known today as Nagorno Karabakh, constitutes one of the important chapters in the history of Armenian art. It has progressed through the same major stages as did Armenian art in a larger sense: from pre-Christian times to the adoption of Christianity early in the fourth century, through the Middle Ages, and from there — to the era of modernity.

Ghazachetsots Monastery - center of the city Shushi

As in many other Christian cultures, the principal expression of Artsakh’s art in the Middle Ages was through ecclesiastical architecture: churches, cathedrals, chapels and monasteries. Most other forms of art in that period, including illuminated manuscripts, khachkars (unique-to-Armenia stone slabs with engraved crosses) and mural paintings were likewise tied to Artsakh’s religious life and its primary institution — the Armenian Apostolic Church.

"Green church" - կանաչ ժամ - Shushi city, Artsakh - Nagorno Karabakh Republic

There is also the Kanach Jham Church – Կանաչ ժամ (or Verin Tagh) which you can see from the Cathedral and head up to. According to the building inscription the church was built in 1818 in the place of the former Gharabaghtsots wooden church (in bottom eastern part of fort-town, existed in the second half of 18c). Over the entry, crowned with chapel’s dome is carved the inscription, “Babayan Stepanos Hovanes. In the memory of the deceased brother Mkrtich. 1847″. During Soviet times, surrounded by rest houses and sanatoriums, the church was turned into a mineral water tasting hall. At that time parts of the interior were altered or concealed.

Shushi city - Mets Meched Mosque

Of the mosques, you should at least visit Verkhiya Mosque, also known as Mets Meched Mosque. It was built in 1883 by architect Kerbelay Sefi. Fully repaired by the Soviets, it became Shushi town’s history museum, but was subsequently damaged during the Karabakh war. There has been recent talk of Iran funding a new restoration. The walls are built from simple and roughly-trimmed stone, finished with lime-mortar plaster.

Two minarets rise from southern and northern sides, which are covered with red, white, blue resin bricks. Climb up the minarets for a great view of the town and area, including the valley which Stepanakert lies in. Stepanakert and surrounding areas were barraged with bombs from this vantage above the surrounding plains until it was finally captured. The damage to Stepanakert during the war is mostly repaired, but the extensive damage to Shushi is mostly still apparent and you can explore these ruins which are so odd to see interspersed among occupied homes and businesses. Most of the buildings are of white stone, in the traditional architecture of the region, and much more attractive than the newer, soviet constructions.

Shushi city historical-geographic museum

Pre-historic times

The earliest monuments in Artsakh relate to the pre-Christian era when polytheism was the most widespread form of religion. The most curious art form from that time period is, perhaps, large anthropomorphic stone idols that are found in the eastern lowlands of the northern counties of Jraberd and Khachen. They date from the Iron Age. Also, in the northeastern outskirts of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, and further to the east, so-called sahmanakars (“Border Stones”) are found.

Nowadays Shushi city - Avan plaza building in the center of the town

They originally appeared during the reign of the Artashessian (Artaxiad) royal dynasty in Armenia (190 BC-53 AD) who used the stones, with inscriptions, to demarcate the kingdom’s frontiers for travelers. In Artsakh, the tradition of marking borders with sahmanakars endured throughout the Middle Ages. The largest of such medieval markers stands near the town of Mataghes in the Mardakert District. An inscription on the stone declares: “Here [the province of] Siunik ends.”

The most famous representative of the Artashessian dynasty was Tigran II the Great (95 BC-55 BC), under whom the Kingdom of Armenia stretched from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Recognizing the important position of Artsakh inside his kingdom, Tigran II built a city in the region and named it Tigranakert after himself (Tigranocerta, in Roman sources); its ruins are found some 50 miles to the northeast of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic’s present-day capital of Stepanakert. Between Tigranakert and Stepanakert, and elsewhere in Artsakh’s lowlands, it was common to find well-preserved silver currency minted by the Artashessians. One side of these coins feature profiles of the kings who are depicted in traditional Armenian royal tiaras embellished with the symbol of the House of the Artashessians — an eight-beam star guarded by two eagles.

Shushi town overview

There is a little town square with the slogan “The Armenians only salvation lies in their unity” painted above one of the buildings in Armenian. The original writer of that sentence is said to have been jailed for it. The square has a convenience store, a restaurant, a park, and the government building. It is also near the post office where you can mail letters and postcards with Karabakh postage stamps from and make international calls from as well.

Shushi big canyon - Tdjrdyus

Shushi city historical-geographic museum: Hasan-Jalal's statue

The Destruction of the City of Shushi by Muslim Fanatics in 1920′s

Events in the Southern Caucasus that followed the 1917 October revolution in Russia have had a devastating effect on the fate of the city of Shushi and on its architectural marvels. After the entry of Turko-Islamic nomads to Artsakh, in the 1750s, the city became divided into two parts: Armenian and Muslim. While the Islamic Turkic tribesmen (known since the 1920s as “Azerbaijanis”) constituted less than five percent of the population of Artsakh’s highlands, their largest concentration was in Shushi, where they developed difficult relations with the city’s autochthonous Armenian residents. They city was a venue of sporadic inter-communal violence since 1905, but it was in March 1920 when it received the deadliest blow of all. Aided by expeditionary Ottoman forces, armed Turkic (“Azerbaijani”) bands burned and destroyed all Christian quarters of the city, murdering most of its Armenian residents in the process — some 20,000 people in total.

The city’s three out of five Armenian churches were totally destroyed: Holy Savior “Meghretzotz” (1838), Holy Savior “Aguletzotz” (1882) and Kusanatz Anapat (1816). The Cathedral of the Holy Savior (1868-1888) was desecrated and severely damaged. With as many as 7,000 buildings demolished, Shushi has never been restored to its former grandeur. Instead, it shrank, becoming a smaller town peopled primarily by Muslims (14 thousand residents in 1987 versus 42 thousand in 1913). It stood in ruins from 1920 up to the mid-1960s, when remnants of the city’s Armenian half were bulldozed by the orders from Baku.

Stepanakert city overview

Stepanakert – Capital of Artsakh Republic (Nagorno Karabakh Republic)

Stepanakert city center - "Pyatachok" park in the heart of the city, near the government buildings

Nowadays Stepanakert's streets

Stepanakert city - lights in front of the "Armenia" hotel

Stepanakert - new business center building

Nestled in a bowl of mountains, Stepanakert (Ստեփանակերտ) is the capital of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. It was originally known as Vararakn (Վարարակն or “rapid creek” in Armenian). City’s present name was assumed in 1923 and was derived from Stepan Shahumyan, an Armenian Bolshevik. 1923 is also the year Stepanakert was made the capital of Karabakh autonom-region.

Stepanakert - the new building of children-center

In Stepanakert there are a number of places to stay. A well known hotel is the Hotel Lotus in the southern part of the town, close to the end of the Goris-Stepanakert highway. At about $35-45 a night, you will get normal accomodations which you are accustomed to in the west.

Artsakh State University building - Stepanakert, Nagorno Karabakh Republic

City lights - Stepanakert

Ani: The ghost city of 1001 churches

Ani – some call it the City of 1001 Churches, others the City of Forty Gates

Abandoned by its once prosperous and powerful inhabitants, it is situated on the Turkish side of a militarised zone between the border of Turkey and Armenia.

The city of Ani is no stranger to death, destruction and desertion.

It is a ghost city today but once its Armenian inhabitants numbered close to 200 thousand. In its heyday it was a metropolis which rivalled Constantinople, Cairo or Baghdad as a center of culture and enterprise. Although it was never on traditional trade routes its sheer size and power commanded visits by merchants from all directions. Yet what happened to reduce this once magnificent and regionally dominant city to virtually dust?

The city of Ani is no stranger to death, destruction and desertion

Ani: The ghost city of 1001 churches

Ani (Armenian: Անի, Greek: Ανίον, Latin: Abnicum) is a ruined and uninhabited medieval Armenian city-site situated in the Turkish province of Kars

The city is the victim of a colossal and centuries old struggle for power between various factions in the region. Founded in the fourth or fifth century AD the following millennium saw Armenians, Kurds, Georgians, Mongols and Turks struggle for and ascend to power in the city-state.

At its height, Ani had a population of 100,000–200,000 people and was the rival of Constantinople, Baghdad and Cairo

The city was originally Armenian and the territory on which it stands is still disputed between modern day Turkey and Armenia

Almost each time a faction rose to power the city was ransacked almost to the point of obliteration. Ani finally wheezed its metaphorical last breath by the middle of the eighteenth century, exhausted to extinction, as it were, by the constant struggle for supremacy over its dominion.

Story by Kuriositas | Kuriositas.com << (read and view more here)

Ani (Armenian: Անի, Greek: Ανίον, Latin: Abnicum) is a ruined and uninhabited medieval Armenian city-site situated in the Turkish province of Kars, beside the border with Armenia. It was once the capital of a medieval Armenian kingdom that covered much of present day Armenia and eastern Turkey. The city is located on a triangular site, visually dramatic and naturally defensive, protected on its eastern side by the ravine of the Akhurian River and on its western side by the Bostanlar or Tzaghkotzadzor valley. The Akhurian is a branch of the Araks River and forms part of the current border between Turkey and Armenia. Called the “City of 1001 Churches”, it stood on various trade routes and its many religious buildings, palaces, and fortifications were amongst the most technically and artistically advanced structures in the world.

At its height, Ani had a population of 100,000–200,000 people and was the rival of Constantinople, Baghdad and Cairo. Long ago renowned for its splendor and magnificence, Ani has been abandoned and largely forgotten for centuries.

Echmiadzin is a small spiritual center of Armenia where the world-famous the Holy Echmiadzin Cathedral is situated.

The cathedral is listed in the Unesco World Heritage Site.

Echmiadzin cathedral

Besides, Echmiadzin is the fourth largest and one of the oldest cities in Armenia and this is where the Catholicos of all Armenians lives.

The city is located in Armavir province of the country which is 20 km west of Yerevan and it takes about 30 minutes of ride by minibus.

Many tourists come to see this marvelous green city with its amazing churches and learn more of the Armenian history and religion.

Especially on the weekends the churches and the streets of the town are full of people, both local inhabitants and tourists from every corner of the world.

The heart of Echmiadzin is the Holy Echmiadzin Cathedral which was built by the Gregory Illuminator in 301-303. The word Echmiadzin means the coming of the only-begotten.

According to a legend he had a vision of Christ who descended and stroke the earth with a golden hammer to show where the cathedral should be built. And Echmiadzin church was built at that exact place. The wooden dome of the church was replaced with a stone one in 618.

Holy Echmiadzin, Armenia (c) Photo-Week.net

The church is not very big but it’s very beautiful and cosy. The area of the church is also wonderful. There’s a long park where you can stroll down, enjoying the fresh air and the green.

Also you can find a museum and a shop in the church yard where you can buy traditional Armenian souvenirs.

Besides the Holy Cathedral, I would also advise you to see the church of St.Gayane, St.Hripsime and Saint Shoghakat which are not far from the Holy Echmiadzin Cathedral.

You can start from St.Gayane and then go to other churches on foot.

Holy Echmiadzin Cathedral, Armenia

I can assure you’ll be impressed by this little spiritual city with lots of churches, green parks and beautiful sights.

By Diana Davoyan | Aenigmatica.blogspot.com

More photos of Echmiadzin >>