Day 35 27 May Yerevan and one more fortress

Photo above - Amberd Fortress church

Up into the mountains

My final full day in Armenia and the Caucasus region today. We set off after breakfast to drive northwest out of Yerevan towards Mount Aragats, which at 4090m is the highest point in Armenia. We are visiting Amberd Fortress. We travelled up into the green steep slopes of the lower part of the mountain through lots of small villages. At 2000m we passed a tiny ski resort, which was all closed up at this time of year.

Semi nomadic people

Higher still, we passed an encampment of Yazidi, a semi nomadic people who farm sheep, and move around the mountains. They were living in tents but also have summer villages. Their largest population is in Iraq. Their religion is Mazdaism. There are about 2 million worldwide, 45,000 are in Armenia .They can only get education in their own language Kurmanji, within Armenia.

Amberd Fortress

By the time we were at the height of the fortress, the landscape was rough grass and rocks. Amberd Fortress, is a 10th-century fortress on the slopes of Mount Aragats. It sits at 2300m, and at the confluence of the Arkashen and Amberd rivers. The name translates as ‘fortress in the clouds’. Its construction began in the 7th century and continued into the 11th. It is surrounded by cliffs on three sides, which protected it for a long time until it was eventually sacked in the 14th century. There is actually a fortress, a church, a bathouse, and various ruins of outbuildings which may have been living quarters for soldiers.

Baking bread and eating food

Next we headed down the mountain and on towards towards Oshakan village (pop 3,000), where we visited a local family to see how they bake traditional Armenian flatbread known as 'Lovash', and then had lunch there.

Yerevan Museum

Then it was back to the bus and the return drive back to Yerevan. Back in Yerevan, we made a visit to the Matenadaran Library, which houses over 17,000 rare manuscripts. Both Armenian and foreign books and papers are held here from the 15th century onwards, and gives a glimpse into many periods of world history. Clearly with an emphasis on Armenian documents, we saw a little about the complexity and uniqueness of the Armenian language. It is one of the 14 different alphabets currently in use world wide. Finally it was back to the hotel for the last time.

Caucasus reflection

Well, this evening marks the end of over a month of travelling through five countries. I have previously summarised my thoughts on the India part of the trip. The trip through the Caucasus region of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia has been an eye opener for me. The whole region has had a tumultuous recent political past, and old wounds are never far from the surface. Closed borders, breakaway autonomous regions, Russian occupied zones, declarations of independence, political corruption etc. However all three countries are at various stages with positive steps to move forward, and the people we met were friendly and welcoming to the extreme.

Azerbaijan was much greener than I expected, and had a very young and multi cultural capital, but still has a president whose only opposition is his wife (literally!). Georgia had probably the most variety in its landscapes, had a very interesting capital, but still has a third of its population below the poverty line. Armenia in some ways feels the most stable, a lovely green mountainous country, and a very modern capital, but suffered terribly in comparatively recent times with a period of ethnic cleansing by their neighbours the Turks, and have lost lots of land neighbours that was historically Armenian.

I have found the region a very interesting place to visit and as a European have been made to feel very welcome.