Old and new

This morning’s goals, Gekhard and Garni, are east of Yerevan, towards Mount Azdaak. We drove along a beautiful valley to Gekhard Monastery.

There may have been a pre-Christian place of worship around a spring, now in one of the hollowed-out chambers in the side of the mountain. Most of what we saw dates from the 12th and 13th centuries.

The pagan temple at Garni was built in the first century AD and restored after an earthquake in the 17th. This is the only one in Armenia not demolished by Christians. Greek style, 9 steep steps, 6 pillars on each side.  Someone singing to test the acoustics. No indication of how the space was used for worship.  There are ruins of a church and Roman baths destroyed in the same earthquake.

After visiting a stall selling local fruit jams etc., we went for lunch to an open air café where we were shown the making of flat bread and how to roll it into a wrap, before sitting down to various salads and  barbecued trout.

Back in Yerevan, the bus dropped us at the Cascade.  I walked through the  sculpture park, rode the escalators through the art museum, then climbed scruffy stairs to a monument at the top.

With Phil and Judith, stopped for a drink at a small garden .cafë, where the owner plucked apricots from the tree and gave them to us.  Later, we visited the church of St Athanasius (who restored Saul’s sight at Damascus) – friendly neighbourhood church tucked away behind the hotel.