Vayots Dzor — "the gorge of grief," after the legend of a town that sank into the depths — is in fact the brightest and most sparsely populated region of Armenia. The Arpa and Yeghegis rivers have cut canyons of red tuff here, and at the bottom of one of them, among sheer crimson cliffs, hides Noravank. A 13th-century monastery with the two-tiered church of Surb Astvatsatsin, reached by a narrow staircase up the bare facade; the carving was the work of Momik — architect, sculptor and miniaturist, whose khachkar stands right there, by the wall.
Here Armenian wine begins — and not figuratively. In the Areni-1 cave, near the wine-making village of the same name, archaeologists found the world's oldest winery: a press, a fermentation vat and vessels around six thousand years old. In the same cave lay the planet's oldest leather shoe. Today Areni is dozens of wineries on the slopes, and the "Areni" variety is bottled throughout the valley; in October the village buzzes with the "Wine Festival."
And higher up, at an altitude of two kilometers, gush the hot springs of Jermuk — a balneological resort whose mineral water has spread across the whole country. Above it falls the two-cascade "Mermaid" waterfall, along the gorge stretch the sanatoriums, and farther in the mountains await the fortress of Smbataberd, the monasteries of Tsakhats Kar and Gndevank, and the Selim (Orbelian) caravanserai — a stone shelter on the old Silk Road that has outlasted the 14th century.
«Here the stone is red as wine, and the wine is old as this stone.»
On this page — the settlements of the province (with weather on click), monuments, routes and chronicle. Noravank, Areni-1, Jermuk, the Selim Pass — each with its own time and its own taste.
