What Lies in the Red Hills…

View of the red hills of the gorge surrounding the Noravank Monastery, Armenia

Continuing on our adventures in Armenia, after a couple of nights staying in the capital, Yerevan, we headed out into the hills. Our mission – more mysterious monasteries. Yup, Armenia (and to a large extent, Georgia) is all about ancient monasteries and the countryside. Many tourists from our part of the world (i.e. the UAE) visit for the snow, but we visited at the peak of summer, during a heat wave with 40C temperatures all around. How likely do you think we’d be of seeing snow?!?

Our first stop south of Yerevan, was Khor Virap (which I’ve written about in an earlier post). Next off, 80+ km further to the south, is a remote monastery surrounded by quiet brick-red hills. Here’s our adventure of finding the Noravank Monastery!


We passed by the junction to Areni Village, which is famous for… wine! (What else, when the sign itself is a wine barrel?!) The signs sez Areni in Armenian (By the way, Armenia is one of the oldest wine producing regions in the world!)


Areni Village, from the main road. See that single church on the plateau, dwarfed by the towering cliffs? That’s a sign of things to come…


Is this the turn off to Noravank? Yes it is, the road between the towering hills


Here we go, into the gorge. "I spot with my little eye, something starting with ‘C’". There up ahead, churches up on the left


Noravank amidst the hills


Noravank Monastery, Armenia


Surb Astvatsatsin Church, Noravank


“Wow, this is fun!” “HEY COME DOWN JUSTIN, IT’S DANGEROUS! YOUR BROTHER WILL FOLLOW” (Sir, do you mind, this is a church…)


Yup, that’s the staircase. Stone slabs sticking out of the wall. That’s what you do, when you friggin forget to include staircases to go up to the second level in your design… “Shite! No place for stairs… Ummm…. Let’s just stick it on the walls and make it look as nice as it can. …There!” (I remember one place which had these amplified many times …the immense Chaturbhuj temple in Orchha, India. It had stone slabs sticking out as access to its towering dome. And these are unconnected, with some broken… No, never even thought of trying!)


There’s a hole! No, not going there! (Went halfway down, just for a photo. If I went down, what d’ya think the kids would do?!?)


Surb Karapet Church at Noravank


A priest arrives


A service in progress at the Surb Karapet Church. Armenians are a pious lot. Even in this remote place, there’re people attending services


Let’s go, before it gets dark!