Bayandur
A quiet village on the Akhurian

What is this place

Bayandur is a small village in the Shirak Province of Armenia, spread along the right bank of the Akhurian River near the Armenia-Turkey border, about 16 km from Gyumri. It is home to roughly 634 people and sits at an elevation of 1,480 metres.

Bayandur lies on the Shirak plateau, on the right bank of the border river Akhurian. Cool mountain air, open fields and views over the river gorge set the tone for this quiet village: life moves slowly here, in the rhythm of the herding and farming that occupy most local families. Gyumri, the provincial centre, is just 16 kilometres to the south-west.

The village carries a notable page of history. In the autumn of 1853, at the very start of the Crimean War, it was near Bayandur that an advance detachment of the Russian army unexpectedly ran into the main Turkish forces marching on Alexandropol (today's Gyumri). That clash became a prelude to the decisive victory at Bashkadiklar, and the name Bayandur made its way into pre-revolutionary military encyclopaedias.

Today Bayandur remains a modest border village, tied to the rest of Armenia by the Gyumri-Yerevan railway, where trains make one of their Shirak Province stops. For the traveller, Bayandur is appealing not for loud landmarks but for the very atmosphere of this borderland by the Akhurian, with its wide horizons, its quiet and the nearness of the river.