We awoke to glorious sunshine illuminating the spectacular cliffs directly opposite our hotel.
View from our hotel window, Arevi Hotel, Yehegnadzor,
After a quick breakfast, we were on the road by 08:30 and heading down to the little village of Areni where we transferred to two old Russian built, gas powered ‘jeeps’.
In convoy, we then commenced a steep climb on a narrow stony four-wheel drive track to a high ‘lookout point’ at 1760m in the Gnishik Protected Area.
Group with jeeps, Gnishik Protected area, Areni Village
Our observation point gave us an amazing panoramic view across the ravine with jagged orange and grey coloured cliffs plunging into a green river basin way below. This might be best called Armenia’s ‘mini-grand canyon’.
View from Gnishik Protected area, Areni Village
View from Gnishik Protected area
We spent an hour at this location enjoying the spectacular scenery but one of our other objectives was to see a bezoar goat.
Bezoar goats are ancestors of domestic goats and live in mountainous regions of the Caucasus and Turkey. They are an endangered species and get their name from a special rigid hairball in their stomach, called a bezoar. In ancient times these bezoar ‘stones’ were thought to bring good luck and so these goats were killed to get the ‘lucky’ bezoars. The population of bezoar goats was thus seriously threatened. The numbers are now slowly recovering due to these animals being wholly protected.
From our high vantage point we spotted several herds of bezoars but they were too far away to get anything but rather inadequate photos.
Bezoar goat, Gnishik Protected area
Bezoar goats, Gnishik Protected area
On departing our ridge top site, we descended on another rocky path that had frighteningly deep drop-offs at the track’s edge. The road terminated at the 14th century Noravank Monastery.
Noravank Monastery
This monastery was founded in 1205 and has been sensitively renovated in the 1990s. The complex includes three churches but the main one is Surp Astvatsatin built in 1339 which is positioned on top of the mausoleum of Prince Burtel Orbelian. The church is ‘upstairs’ and the steps leading up are now blocked to the public.
Stairs to church, Noravank Monastery
The churches are constructed from a reddish-gold stone with numerous carvings depicting Biblical scenes and persons as well as events of historical significance. The three churches looked highly impressive in the morning sunshine.
Eagle carving on Noravank Monastery,
For our luncheon break, we had a stopover at the “Old Bridge Winery” in Areni village. The Areni area is a major wine producing region for Armenia.
The wine-tasting session involved four of their local wines that we found most impressive. The owner of the winery and his staff gave interesting descriptions of the wines and their grapes used in production. The wines were served along with cheeses, dried and fresh fruits, olives and other tasty morsels.
Old Bridge Vineyard, Arpa Valley
Wines, Old Bridge Vineyard
We stopped briefly at the Areni T’rchuneri (Bird) Cave for photos. The cave is an archeological treasure with some fantastically old objects found therein.
Amongst the amazing finds was a wine cellar with dried grapes, plums and seeds dating from the Bronze Age (4000BCE). A leather shoe was found within the cave and has been tested and estimated to be 5500 years old.
Areni T’rchuneri (Bird) Cave near Arpa Valley
From Areni we then followed the road westwards through Ararat to Artashat. This vast valley region is renowned for its agricultural products. Apart from many vineyards, the area has extensive orchards and large regions of vegetable cropping.
We were now in the midst of a thunderstorm and intermittent heavy rain.
We rushed up to the Khor Virap Monastery from which we could look across to the Turkish border just a kilometre or so away.
Turkish border (line of trees) viewed from Khor Virap Monastery, Ararat Province, Armenia
Unfortunately the weather conditions had dampened our enthusiasm but at least we could just see one of the lower peaks of Mt Ararat through the mist and clouds. This is the mountain upon which, supposedly Noah’s Ark came to rest after the global deluge as told of in both Genesis and the Quran.
It is even suggested that the population of the Ararat Province is descended from Noah’s third son Japheth.
We then finished our travels with a fairly short drive north to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.
The traffic was high density and the rain made driving conditions even more difficult but our trusty driver Hovig did a marvellous job and managed to drop us of at the Yerevan fruit and meat market. The fruits, herbs, spices and especially the dried fruits were displayed in a most appealing and colourful manner. Several of the vendors were keen for us to try their fruits etc and offered samples to taste.
Dried fruit, Yerevan fruit and meat market, Yerevan
We then checked in at the Ani Plaza Hotel recognising that tomorrow will be our last day in the Caucasus. Very late tomorrow night/morning we leave for Austria.