Tairov
A village at Zvartnots' gate

What is this place

Tairov is a small village in Armenia's Armavir Province, right beside Zvartnots airport and the M5 highway, just minutes west of Yerevan. It carries the name of agronomist Vasil Tairov and lives off its orchards, vineyards and vegetable plots.

Tairov was founded in the early 1920s and named in honour of the agronomist Vasil Tairov, a noted specialist in viticulture. Just over two thousand people now live here at around 875 metres, out on the flat Ararat plain, where the soil has long been at home with the vine and the fruit tree. Administratively the village belongs to the Parakar community.

Tairov's real asset is its location. The village sits next to Zvartnots International Airport and the M5 road, which makes it a handy jumping-off point for a traveller: the centre of Yerevan is very close, and nearby stand the sanctuaries of Vagharshapat (Echmiadzin) and the ruins of Zvartnots Cathedral. The climate is dry and semi-arid, with hot summers, cool winters and clear skies for much of the year.

The people of Tairov work in horticulture, viticulture, vegetable growing and livestock farming, the familiar rhythm of the Ararat-plain villages. This is not a tourist spot with loud landmarks but a quiet lowland village you pass on the way from the airport to the capital, worth remembering as a calm agricultural corner right at the gate of Yerevan.