Holiday in the Caucasus (15): in and around Yerevan, Armenia
On the penultimate day of our tour of the Caucasus, there was much less travelling because we were either in Yerevan or in the district about an hour to the east of the city.
Over a period of centuries, Armenia has had no less than 14 capitals. The current capital – since the Soviet days of 1918 – is Yerevan which is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world (most of the other claims to longevity are cities in Syria and Lebanon, both of which I have visited). Its current population is just over 1 million which is about 35% of the country’s total population.
First, we drove up to a hill overlooking the city – not a particularly pretty sight. We were there to see the 22 metre (72 feet) high Mother Armenia memorial commemorating the country’s losses in the Second World War. Our guide claimed that, proportionate to its population, Armenia suffered the greatest loss of any of the Republics in the USSR. He also pointed that the designer of the MiG jets Artem Mikoyan – one of these aircraft was on display at the foot of the monument – was an Armenian.
Then we drove down into the city centre to see a building that is of special pride to all Armenians.
The Matenadaran (literally book depository) is the nation’s Manuscript Museum containing some 3,000 manuscripts dating from as far back as the 5th century. We had a museum guide who spoke excellent English and astonished us with the wonder of the museum’s displayed items which are, of course, a tiny fraction of the collection.
After we has-beens had indulged in a cafe called “The Green Bean”, we drove east for about an hour to a garden restaurant in a place called Geghard. The, having viewed a demonstration of the making of local bread using a kiln in the ground, we ate lunch in the shade (the temperature was 34C).
Suitably refreshed, we then toured the Geghard Monastery which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. This was founded in the 4th century with most of the current buildings dating from the 12th century and carved out of a cliff. In one of the vaults, we were treated to the singing of a number of Armenian songs by a quartet of two men and two women. Their singing was divine and the acoustics amazing. I have not been so moved by sound since I visited a village just outside Damascus before the civil war and heard the Lord’s Prayer delivered in Aramaic.
It was only a short ride to an unusual site: an Hellenic-style temple. Garni Temple was originally built in the first century AD, largely destroyed by an earthquake in 1679, and rebuilt between 1969-1975. As with so many of the ancient churches of both Georgia and Armenia, the location was impressive – in this case, on the edge of a deep gorge.
It had been an easier day with much less travelling than previously, but it was still a nine-hour day by the time we returned to our hotel in Yerevan.