Friday 28th June

After an excellent breakfast we were off to the Goshavank Monastery, another remarkable example of Armenian architecture with a series of churches all built in basalt in the standard design, which is designed & has coped with, severe earthquakes since the 13th century. One of the features of the churches are the finely carved slabs with elaborate crosses carved with fine celtic like, designs. The domed ceilings inside had huge ribs which ran parallel to the walls rather than in the fan shape we were more used to.

After the monastery we drove towards Yerevan, the capital & left the forest covered mountains, passed through a long tunnel & came out to treeless, grassed hills at the start of the semi desert area of the country. We drove by the country's largest lake, Lake Sevan, 75k by 50k which is stocked with trout. The lake had fallen by 19m in Soviet times but has since been lifted by 8m to restore its ecology.

Here we climbed up to Sevanavank Monastery, of similar design to the others, on a peninsula in the lake.

We lunched in Garni & visited the Garni, Roman, Hellenistic, temple to Mithras built in the 1st century AD by King Tiridates. The temple had collapsed due to a severe earthquake but had been rebuilt in the Soviet era, largely from the scattered parts. It sits at the end of a high ridge surrounded by a deep gorge on 3 sides & had been the site of the king's palace at the time of building.

Further up the gorge we came to Geghard Monastery, which was built in stages, including 2 churches which were carved out of the native rock walls of the mountain. We were intrigued particularly, by how the excavated sections were built as they contained fine domes, each with a central hole in the dome, to allow light into the church. As before, the internal designs were very similar, regardless of whether the church was free standing or carved out of the rock.

Finally, we descended into Yerevan, the 12th capital of Armenia through its rather grubby suburbs, to see a carpet factory where hand made carpets were being knotted & woven. Then, thankfully, on to our hotel near the centre of the city.

Saturday 29th June

Our last day on tour. First stop was the ruined Zvarnots Temple, a circular 7th century church about 15 k out of Yerevan. The museum showed how it was constructed but its design was not strong enough & it collapsed in a severe earthquake in the 11th century. At that stage the church was in the capital of its state but the area was abandoned & is now a suburb of the city.

Returning we went to the Armenian Genocide Museum, set on the hillside above the city & here we saw the terrible story of the massacre of the western Armenians living in the Ottoman empire from the late 1800s through to 1915, when the Turks tried to wipe out the Christian population as a part of their strategy to build a pan Turkish nation across to the 'Stans' of Asia. It was well presented & very thought provoking but we didn't have time to see it all. It is estimated that in excess of 1.5 million people were killed & many more escaped to other countries.

Today it is estimated that more than 4 million people, of Armenian descent, live outside the Armenian Republic whilst 3 million live in it. The country lacks natural resources & is dependent on large numbers of males working abroad, mainly in Russia, sending home money to support their families.

The Republic has been at war with Azerbaijan over a corridor of land between 2 parts of the latter country, since 1994, although there is a cease fire now. To compound their problems Armenia has poor relations with Turkey so the borders are closed but good relations with Iran & Russia. Thus they feel that they are sandwiched between Russia & the USA.

After a quick visit to the wonderful market hall we finished our tour at the Matenadaran Manuscript Museum where we saw many fine manuscripts & book,s in this very Soviet style building.

Finally we walked down to the Cascades, a huge staircase like structure rising from Yerevan to the suburbs above, built in the 1980s as part of the 1920s grand plan to modernize the city. In the afternoon we took the escalators inside to the top of this strange structure for a great view of the city.

That evening we all went for a meal at a local restaurant before saying our farewells to most of the party.