Friday, January 27, 2017

Armenia and Why You Should Definitely Put It On Your Bucket List, Part 3

*This Post originally appeared on my old lifestyle blog Style and Chocolates, a couple of years ago. This blog post has a few modifications to the text and is being transferred here permanently.

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see

Finally Part 3 of my Armenia series. I have already written in the other two parts about how much I love this country. I was there for only a little over a week with my family and I found that it had so much to offer. Armenia is a really small country that has an abundance of beautiful sights, gorgeous countryside and food that is so good! Even now, months later, I am still craving it!

If you guys haven't read part 1 and part 2, I covered some sights from the country's capital Yerevan and several monasteries and beautiful scenery all over the country. This post will tackle some more sights in Yerevan and a few more monasteries, including two UNESCO World Heritage ones. Read the captions and see all the photos to find out more about this stunning place.


Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see geghard monastery
Geghard monastery- part of it is carved from a single rock from the mountain.

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Geghard Monastery
Geghard Monastery : this is a wishing rock found right outside the entrance. 
You throw three small rocks and try to shoot it into one of the holes of the rock. 
If you do, then your wishes come true!


Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Geghard Monastery
Geghard Monastery - scribes would lock themselves in this room for days while working 
on a manuscript. There is just a little window where they receive their food for every meal. 
Talk about focus!

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Geghard Monastery
Geghard Monastery : Inside building, the acoustics are so amazing that when one person sings, it sounds like a whole choir.

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Genocide Memorial
Armenian Genocide Memorial.

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Genocide Memorial
Inside the Genocide Memorial, there is an eternal flame.

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see gorge
Gorgeous gorge. Perilous looking gorge over the Kasakh river.

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Saghmosavank Monastery
Saghmosavank Monastery, perched by the perilous gorge.

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Haghpat Monastery
Haghpat Monastery : an UNESCO world heritage site.

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Haghpat Monastery
Hagpat Monastery:  the holes in the ground used to to be storage for manuscripts and scrolls but it was later on used to store wine and cheese. A medieval refrigerator I like to call it!


Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Haghpat Monastery
Another view of the Haghpat Monastery

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin : Inside the grounds of the Armenian Holy See

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin
Gorgeous roses around the grounds of the Armenian Holy See.

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Candied fruit at local market
Colorful dried fruit display in their local market.

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Yerevan
A view of Yerevan from the Erebuni musuem.

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Yerevan
 Matenadaran : Library in Yerevan that holds one of the largest collections of rare manuscripts in the world. It has about 17,000 manuscripts!

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Yerevan
Photo : A statue of Mother Armenia. This is located at the top of  Victory park overlooking the whole city of Yerevan.
 
Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Yerevan
Ancient Fortree walls of Erebouni, the old name of Yerevan.

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Yerevan
An ancient chariot found in the Erebouni musuem.

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Yerevan
This is called a Rhyton, where they used to drink wine from. I wanted one so badly!

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see Yerevan
Ancient fortresses overlooking the city.

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see
Inside the Sanhain Monastery.

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see
Sunspot

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see
Wood Carving

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see
Spices at the local market. I got some ground up saffron and paprika!

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see  Sanahin Monastery
 Sanahin Monastery : An UNESCO World heritage site.

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see  Sanahin Monastery
Sanahin Monastery : this area is where the scholars used to study. (If I'm not mistaken)

Visiting Armenia and the best sites to see  Sanahin Monastery
Sanahin Monastery : Gorgeus arches found inside. The floors were actually tombs of people from the church. 

I really thought that by day 3 or 4 of the tour I would get sick of visiting one monastery after the other but really each one was beautiful on its own. The backdrop and the scenery of each one is always so stunning and different. One monastery had all green and grassy mountains for a  backdrop, the other had red jagged cliffs, another with a lake and one with a very perilous looking gorge that dropped down to who knows where. 



It was such a fabulous trip and I really hope that whoever is reading this post will make Armenia their next visit. I feel like it is such an under-appreciated country and it's normally not as talked about as places like Paris or Thailand. It's scenery and tourist attractions are just as amazing! I really hope you guys will visit and experience this wonderful country!

P.S. In my original Armenia posts in my old blog Style&Chocolates, I included a little bit of the food in part two. I’ve decided however, that in this brand new blog, I will do an entirely different post to talk about the food. I absolutely loved the food in Armenia and felt like it deserved it’s very on post. So I hope you guys will stick around for the food feature on Armenia that’s coming up!

All photos in this post are personal photos of nofiltertravel.blogspot.com. If you want to use them or borrow them in any way, please contact me first! My email add: nofiltertravel@gmail.com. If you can't be bothered to send me an email and still want to use my photos, then please do credit them and link back to this blog. Thanks!

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