Tsovinar
A large village on Lake Sevan's southern shore named for the goddess of water

What is this place

Tsovinar is a large Armenian village on the southern shore of Lake Sevan, in Gegharkunik Province, about fifty kilometres southeast of Gavar. Despite its sizeable population of several thousand, this is very much a rural settlement, spread along the edge of the high-altitude lake at roughly 1,920 metres above sea level. Tsovinar takes its resonant name from the ancient Armenian goddess of water, sea and rain — a name that suits, better than any other, a village living side by side with the largest body of water in the Caucasus.

The village's name derives from Tsovinar, who in Armenian mythology is the goddess of water, sea and rain — a fierce and beautiful mistress of the elements. Choosing such a name for a settlement on the shore of Lake Sevan was no accident: the high-altitude lake shapes the climate, the look of the land and the very rhythm of life here. The word itself contains the root tsov, meaning sea, and for the people of the southern shore Sevan has long been exactly that — an inland sea, closed within a ring of mountains.

Tsovinar lies on the southern shore of Lake Sevan, on the broad coastal strip between the water and the mountain ranges that enclose the basin. An altitude of about 1,920 metres gives the place its stern high-altitude character: the climate is moderately cold and humid, with a mean annual temperature near six degrees Celsius, frosty winters and a short, cool summer. The heaviest precipitation falls in early summer, when the green shoreline stands in sharp contrast to the long, snowbound winter.

These shores were inhabited thousands of years before the present village arose. Nearby rises Odzaberd, an Urartian fortress built by King Rusa I in the late eighth century BC. It is considered the best-preserved Urartian fortification in the entire Sevan basin. On its stones survives a long, though heavily weathered, cuneiform inscription recounting the conquest of twenty-three nations — a silent witness to an age when the empires of the ancient East reached the shores of this mountain lake.

The village's medieval heritage is no less rich. Here stands the church of Surb Sarkis, raised in the twelfth century, with an old cemetery beside it; the church of Topi Galugh also survives. A little apart lie the ruins of the ancient settlement of Karmrashen, with the church of Hnevank, khachkars and tombstones. These stones — carved cross-stones, the shells of churches, grass-covered grave slabs — together form a living chronicle of centuries of Armenian community life on Sevan's southern shore.

The life of modern Tsovinar remains essentially rural and closely tied to the lake and the surrounding land. Its people raise livestock and work the soil in step with the short high-altitude summer, while the nearness of Lake Sevan has long provided fish, water and the distinctly mild microclimate of the lakeside strip. Beside the village, the famous Arpa-Sevan Tunnel empties into the lake — a hydraulic structure that diverts the waters of the Arpa River into Sevan to help sustain the level of the shrinking lake.

For the traveller, Tsovinar is a convenient and quiet stop on the southern route around Sevan, far from the busy northern beaches. From here it is a short way to the fortress of Odzaberd with its Urartian cuneiform, to the old churches, and to the water itself with its shifting colours. Anyone driving along the lake's southern shore will find here a blend of deep antiquity and unhurried village life at the foot of the mountains.

Tsovinar unites three dimensions of time: the myth that gave the village the name of the goddess of water, the antiquity of Urartian walls and medieval churches, and the calm present-day life of a large village on the shore of Lake Sevan.