Caucasus Day 12: Goris > Yerevan

/ alliwanders

On an exercise kick now! Sophie led us on an hours walk this morning through Goris down to a viewpoint looking across to hills where the first settlers carved out cave homes, a la Cappadocia. 

Along the way we popped into 2 bakeries.
The 1st had finished baking but we got a free sample of the lavash bread
In the 2nd the 3 ladies were still hard at it. The assembly line starts from the right: rolling out the dough, then slamming the dough against the inside wall of the oven where it magically sticks, then a few seconds later it’s pulled out already baked!
Our viewpoint was looking right into the sun but apparently there’s caves in them thar hills

Into the bus and on to our first official stop: the Wings of Tatev, an aerial tramway across a gorge to the 9th century Tatev monastery.  “Flying” 230m above the gorge it travels ~3.5 miles, claiming to be the longest in world. 

We fly from where I’m standing to that green hump in the middle right of the photo, then across another gorge on the far side to the monastery.
At hump looking back
At monastery looking back at 1/2 way hump

In a nutshell Tartev was a very important religious and cultural center in medieval Armenia. Started in the 4th century, the main church was built in 848 and rebuilt in 1046 and 1295; and all the surrounding monastery buildings in the 7th century. It was a center of learning and writing and housed a famous university.

A bad earthquake in 1931 destroyed much of the monastery’s structures. The Tramway was built as a gift by a rich Armenian businessman to bring jobs and tourism to the area and all of the profits from the tram go to preserving and restoring Tartev.

A two hour drive ensued to get to our lunch spot, 1.5 hours on the same road we drove out on yesterday.

Lots of smoky, pokey Russian trucks on the road. Not a lot of traffic so passing slower vehicles is a very frequent and sometimes scary practice
Mt Ararat with a puff of cloud on top

After another(!) substantial meal we turned up into a narrow, lush gorge to Noravank Monastery, set in a stunning hillside location. When the two churches were built in 1216 and 1334 they were only accessible across the hilltops from a neighboring village, thus the private worship spot / mausoleum for the rich Georgian family that built them. They are unique for their color (warm beige sandstone), style (only ones in Armenia with graves inside the church. Absolutely forbidden in Armenian religion) and architecture (Islamic influences, the depiction of God, mausoleum on ground floor, church on 2nd). * For the most part “monastery” = “church”, but sometimes includes an actual monastery.

Oldest church was closed
2nd church had a vault chapel attached and a narthex and unprecedented carvings over the door and window
Islamic background and Mary is sitting on a rug showing off her baby, Jesus
Narthex, church itself very plain and a christening was going on inside
Crosses of all shapes & sizes etched into all churches we’ve seen. I thought it was medieval graffiti but actually it’s a privilege given to those pilgrims who donate lots of money to the church

Finally, we strapped in for another 2 hour bus ride to Yerevan. We groaned a bit at this news but were optimistic when we reached the outskirts of town in 1h20m, not realizing traffic in the city moves slower than a snail’s pace and it took us 45 minutes to travel just a few miles.

Photo stop for a closer look at Mt Ararat (in Turkey, just 40km away) thru the haze of the Ararat valley.
Ararat valley only flat part of Armenia so is their agricultural hub.

Arrived to hotel at 7pm, walked to restaurant at 7:45p, returned at 9:30pm thru a jumping, lively, hip & happening crowd. This part of Yerevan is very cosmopolitan with a big cafe scene. Apparently it’s safe to walk around any time of day or night but us weary travelers opted to go straight to bed.🥱