Aravet
An abandoned village in the Shirak highlands

What is this place

Aravet is an abandoned village in northwestern Armenia, in the Shirak province, sitting at roughly 1,990 metres above sea level. Today it has no permanent population.

Aravet lies in the upland part of Shirak province, on the territory of the former Amasia district that was dissolved in 1995. An elevation of nearly 1,990 metres and a harsh highland climate shaped the whole rhythm of the village: short summers, long snowy winters and wide pastures all around.

The village once carried the Turkic names Ilanli and Chaybasar, a reminder of the mixed ethnic past of this corner of Shirak. Over the twentieth century Aravet rose and emptied by turns: more than five hundred people lived here in the late 1970s, yet by 2011 no permanent residents remained. In this way Aravet joined the ranks of Shirak's abandoned mountain villages.

Today Aravet is a quiet dot on the map of highland Armenia, suited more to travellers drawn by the empty nature and windswept reaches of the Shirak plateau than to conventional tourism. Reliable details about surviving structures are scarce, so it is worth coming here knowing in advance that this is an abandoned village.