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.

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.

Geghard monastery- part of it is carved from a single rock from the mountain.

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!

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!

Geghard Monastery : Inside building, the acoustics are so amazing that when one person sings, it sounds like a whole choir.

Armenian Genocide Memorial.

Inside the Genocide Memorial, there is an eternal flame.

Gorgeous gorge. Perilous looking gorge over the Kasakh river.

Saghmosavank Monastery, perched by the perilous gorge.

Haghpat Monastery : an UNESCO world heritage site.

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!

Another view of the Haghpat Monastery

Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin : Inside the grounds of the Armenian Holy See

Gorgeous roses around the grounds of the Armenian Holy See.

Colorful dried fruit display in their local market.

A view of Yerevan from the Erebuni musuem.

 Matenadaran : Library in Yerevan that holds one of the largest collections of rare manuscripts in the world. It has about 17,000 manuscripts!

Photo : A statue of Mother Armenia. This is located at the top of  Victory park overlooking the whole city of Yerevan.

 

Ancient Fortree walls of Erebouni, the old name of Yerevan.

An ancient chariot found in the Erebouni musuem.

This is called a Rhyton, where they used to drink wine from. I wanted one so badly!

Ancient fortresses overlooking the city.

Inside the Sanhain Monastery.

Sunspot

Wood Carving

Spices at the local market. I got some ground up saffron and paprika!

 Sanahin Monastery : An UNESCO World heritage site.

Sanahin Monastery : this area is where the scholars used to study. (If I'm not mistaken)

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!