Armenia and Georgia

Day 1

David and I finally made our trip to join a Hiking tour in Armenia and Georgia arranged by Arara Tours.

Yerevan

We set off on a short walking tour of the city which has been a continuously inhabited city since the 8th century making it possibly the oldest such city in the world. This is not reflected in the architecture which mostly dates from the Soviet era. We starting by going up the Cascade, a giant concrete staircase that now houses a private display of art, much of it in the form of chairs, not all of which looked comfortable. Mount Ararat was visible from the top but it was too hazy for a photograph. We passed various buildings and statues including one of Komitas, the musician and one of the architects of modern Yerevan (the thirteenth capital of Armenia). We stopped at an arcade with some art work and then visited the National Museum where we were shown traditional jewellery, different maps of Armenia through time, and weapons, many of them ceremonial. Among the artefacts on display was a small sculpture, dating from the 15th century BC, of a chariot. The museum is being renovated so we only saw part of the collection.

Garni

After lunch we were driven to the Greco-Roman collonaded temple at Garni, the only remaining pagan temple in Armenia. It was built as a temple, around 77 AD, to the sun-god by King Tiridates I and was reconstructed in the 1970’s having been collapsed in an earthquake in 1679. There were also roman baths, with an impressive mosaic floor, on the site which was protected on three sides by gorges. There were some stones with ancient inscriptions including one in cuneiform.

Geghard Cave Monastery

We then visited the extraordinary church(es) at Geghard founded by the wonderfully named Gregory the Illuminator. Here the monks lived in caves in the cliffs and some of the churches were constructed by digging down through the basalt. Some of the carvings inside the churches/caves were delightful.