World Armenia Yerevan

Fall 2008 Caravan of Countries Along the Central Asian Silk Road

Garni Temple, Geghard Monastery & Khor Vap Oct 4, 2008

October 4, 2008 – Saturday

I and a fellow photographer, Loren, decided to hire an early morning taxi to Khor Virap Monastery. There not much to see on the monastery grounds but the road approaching it offers a spectacular view of the towers and walls of the complex that sits on a hillock with the Mt. Ararat looming in the distance inside Turkey. We arrived just before sunrise. Minutes later the first rays of the rising sun cast a golden glow on the snow-capped Aratat. After a half hour photo session we had the driver take us to the monastery. Though parts of it date to the 6th C., there is little of interest inside the walls.

We made our way back to town to meet the group at the local market. The driver dropped us off at the main entrance but we didn’t see anyone from the group. Loren used his cell phone to contact our local guide who swore up and down that they were also in the market. It turned out that we were in the main vegetable market frequented mainly by locals and they were at the opposite end of the building in an area that offered fancy foods and handicrafts. This part of the market was not visible from the vegetable market.

We still didn’t realize that we were just 100 meters away from the group so we needlessly hired another taxi. He seemed perplexed when we told him where we wanted to go but he didn’t have the English vocabulary to tell us we were already there. We re-established phone contact with the local guide and let her talk to the new driver. He drove us to the opposite end of the building where the group awaited us at an alternate entrance. Feeling a bit foolish, I paid more than the flag fall meter amount for the 30 second journey!

Our daytrip took a southeastly route out of Yerevan to the Temple of Garni and Geghard Monastery.

The restored Hellenic Garni Temple goes back to the pre-Christian era. It sits on a promontory surrounded on three sides by the Avan Gorge that was carved out by the Azat River. Because of its extraordinary position, the area has been populated since Neolithic times and has served as a worshipping site for a variety of religions and a gathering place for royalty.

The Garni parking lot is surrounded by stalls offering candied fruits, honey laced pastries and firs of endangered species, at least one of which, looked like a fox. Armenians as well as foreign tourists provide a steady flow of customers for the ladies tending the little market.

A few miles further you arrive at a canyon where the 12th C. Geghard Monastery sits at the base of the canyon wall. The exterior of the structure is not that impressive until you realize that it is simple an extension of cave chambers in the cliff where churches, tombs and monastic living quarters have been chiseled out of the rock. It is hard to fathom how the cave’s interior was hollowed out and expanded over the centuries, particularly without the aid of dynamite and debris removal equipment.

There numerous intricately carved stoned crosses are known locally as khachkar crosses. They are unique to Armenia and date back to the 4th C. The cathedral interior has a distinctly medieval feel with priests conducting Orthodox services as tourists filter through the site.

Small trees behind the monastery are adorned with hundreds of strips of cloth that are about 1”x 4”. The are called Wish Rags. Legend has it that if you scribble a wish on a strip of cloth and knot it on a tree branch, your wish will be granted.

Following a path to a stream behind the church we came to an arched footbridge and made our way to the other side. A column of smoke rose into the air further down the path. We followed the path to the source of the smoke and found a group of Armenian peasants enjoying a picnic beneath the overhang of cave. The men were sitting on stout benches constructed by laying planks on 15” tall boulders. Stooped on the benches, they enjoyed shots of a liquid that would pass for grain alcohol. Upon our arrival, they quickly produced some spare shot glasses and offered them to all takers.

The women were busily preparing a festive meal. They were stewing some sort of meat in a huge pot heated by a log fire. There was a blanket covered with plates of fruit, grapes and breads. Containers and bags containing more food sat in the rear of the cave, still to be unpacked.

We arrived back in Yerevan by mid-afternoon and a group of us walked several blocks to the local outdoor weekend market. Though only 70 meters wide with footpaths spaced ever 12 meters, the market extended for hundreds of meters before finally terminating at a streambed. Like most bazaars in this part of the world, competitors offering similar products were grouped together.

Of all the markets I have visited around the world, this was the “best in class” for archaic hardware items, parts stripped from obsolete electronic gear and the gaudy artwork that knew no bounds to bad taste. Many vendors had ancient baby strollers parked next to the blankets on the ground where they displayed their inventory. It finally dawned on me that the merchants use these strollers to haul their merchandise in and out of the market.

As you drive around Armenia, particularly near Yerevan, you frequently see rusting above-ground, Soviet era pipelines obliterating the landscape. I presume they are or were for the distribution of natural gas. Given their advanced state of decay, I presume they are no longer used. But, you can never be sure. The sight of them makes me grateful that I live in a country where it is customary to bury pipelines.

Saturdays are the big day for weddings in Yerevan. Our hotel is one of the beautiful curved facades that border the city’s main square, Republic Square. On Saturdays from mid afternoon until early evening, there is a constant flow of wedding motorcades through the square.

The lead car is often a rented Mercedes decorated with one or more huge bouquets of live flowers and wide strips of satin ribbon. If the Mercedes has a sunroof,and most do, it is always wide open with the best man standing up inside the car through the open sunroof, a video cam secured to his right hand filming the trailing vehicles and the majestic buildings on the square. Every car in the motorcade honks wildly as they pass around the square two or three times. It was a festive end to our stay in Yerevan.