Greetings from Goris - this is as far south as we come on this trip to Armenia. I have several days to catch up on so will now continue from where we left - i.e. Lake Sevan.

We followed the shore line of Lake Serevan and went first to a church at Hayravank and then on to a fascinating cemetary in Gavar - the fascination being that some of the grave stones date from the 7th century and there are, of course, lots of khachkars to see.

After that we drove through the Selim Pass, which, at its highest point is about 2400m above sea level - beautiful scenery - we stopped at the Selim Caravanserai - which has been partially restored & gives an idea of what they were like. We then went on to Jermuk - famous (well, famous in Armenia) for its mineral water and the Tsopk waterfall in Jermuk Gorge. The drive to Jermuk is stunning, too - while the Jermuk resort town is - well, everything you'd expect from the Soviets....

We stayed overnight at a curious hotel on the Arpa river - the halls & walls of the hotel were crammed with stuffed animals; animal skins & birds - Lynx; bears; wolves; eagles; deer; wild boar - just awful....

Next morning we went for a walk to see the Zorats Cathedral. The walk was lovely but exhausting in the heat - it took over an hour to reach the top of the escarpment where the ruins are - the guide didn't break a sweat & had time for a few fags on the way - hmmm.... - the walk down was much quicker & easier :-)

We then went to see the fortress of King Smbat and then the church of St Catherine which doesn't seem to exist - or shouldn't exist - or something - much confusion as Catherine is not an Armenian name nor is St Catherine a recognised Armenian Saint - anyway, she went & built her church in a village - where people could get to it. Not on a precipice or a hill in the middle of nowhere. I don't know about you, but i think St Catherine was on to something there..... - the interior design is totally different from all the other Armenian churches we saw, too. A bit of a radical, that St Catherine....

Overnight at the hotel of dead things - again :-/

Next morning & we went off to see the Tatev Monastery (see the picture) - just stunning - then on to Goris & the stalacmites and Khndzoresk (easy for them to say) and the caves. That night we stayed in the Mirhav Hotel in Goris - which is great and a treat after the last place...

We left Goris - wasn't Goris in Gavin & Stacey? - we drove to Noravank where there's another lovely church/monastery complex in a lovely setting high up at the end of a gorge - inaccessible in the old days to anyone except the Mongol hordes - and the Seljuks - oh, and the Malmuks wrought a lot of damage - so did the Sassanids, come to think of it - and don't forget Tamerlain - but other than that, the strategy of building these fortified churches and monasteries in awkward to reach places was sound....

And last, but not least, we stopped at Khor Virap - which sounds like it ought to be in Cambodia - to visit the church where St Gregory the Illuminator was held captive for 13 years prior to converting Armenia to Christianity in 301ad - the first Christian country - albeit that Saints Bartholomew & Thaddeus had preached in Armenia prior to this...

We did stop at a winery on the way to Khor Virap but it was so bad i wasn't going to mention it. We did have some reasonable wine bottled under the Areni label - but the stuff at this winery (i don't remember the name) was just dreadful....

And then....