Aragatsotn means "the foot of Aragats," and everything here is measured by this mountain. The four-peaked extinct volcano, at 4,090 meters, is the highest point in Armenia; its four peaks embrace an ancient crater, and from the melting snows descend streams that gather into the Kasagh River. The higher you climb, the drier the air and the closer the sky — it is no coincidence that here, on the slope at Byurakan, the country's main astrophysical observatory was built.
Above the Kasagh gorge, right on the edge of the cliff, medieval monasteries stand one after another. Saghmosavank and Hovhannavank are two stone guardians of the 13th century, whose walls seem to grow straight out of the rock. A little higher, among the alpine meadows, hides the fortress of Amberd with the Vahramashen church (11th century) — the last stronghold on the way to the summit. And in Oshakan, by the grave of Mesrop Mashtots, rises the monument to the Armenian alphabet: thirty-nine carved letters scattered across a green hill.
The life of the province rests on three towns. Ashtarak — the provincial center above a canyon, with a humpbacked medieval bridge and vineyards. Aparan in the north — a cold highland plateau, home of the famous bread. Talin in the west — wheat steppes and the pink tuff of a 7th-century cathedral. Between them — dozens of villages where Yazidi Kurds graze their cattle and where every stone remembers both Urartu and the observatory's telescopes.
«Aragats carries four seasons at once on its shoulders — and all four are visible from a single trail.»
On this page — the province's settlements (with weather on click), the main landmarks, routes, and chronicle. Amberd, Byurakan, Saghmosavank — each with its own altitude and its own sky.
