Artsakh is a mountainous Armenian land on the eastern spurs of the Lesser Caucasus, between the wooded ridges of the Karabakh highland and the valleys of the Khachen and Tartar rivers. This is a land of old roads and high passes, where every gorge leads to a monastery, and every village remembers its church and its spring. The air here smells of oak forest and tuff warmed in the sun.
The heart of spiritual Artsakh is Gandzasar — the ancestral monastery of the Khachen meliks, whose 13th-century dome is considered one of the masterpieces of Armenian architecture. To the north, in the green gorge of the Tartar, stands Dadivank (9th–13th centuries) with its frescoes and carved khachkars. In the south, in Amaras, according to tradition, Mesrop Mashtots opened one of the first Armenian schools; and in Tigranakert archaeologists have excavated an entire ancient city with an Armenian fortress wall.
Above this whole land rises Shushi — a fortress town on a rocky outcrop, with the majestic Ghazanchetsots Cathedral. Nearby, in Skhtorashen, a thousand-year-old plane tree rustles its leaves, under whose canopy, legend says, travelers of all ages rested. Stepanakert, the main town of the highland, lies below, in a bowl at the foot of the mountains, from where the roads spread out to Martakert, Martuni, Hadrut, Askeran, and Berdzor.
«Artsakh is stone that became faith, and faith that became stone.»
On this page — the towns and villages of the land, its main monuments and chronicle. Gandzasar, Dadivank, Amaras, Tigranakert, Ghazanchetsots — each with its own time and its own character.
