Lets talk about food....

Roasted egg plant and capsicum stuffed with cream cheese and sprinkled with dill 

Armenian food is great. It is a marvelous mixture of Middle Eastern, Iranian and eastern European.

Everywhere are bakeries with fresh breads, flaky pastry treats and sweet buns, biscuits and cakes.

Meat kebabs, common in the Middle East are popular here, with the addition of pork as well as the ubiquitous lamb.

Lamb kebabs

Salads are made from both fresh ingredients as well as pickled greens. Aveluk, a type of sorrel is especially tasty and very popular in Armenia.

Soup served with chips was sort of odd, but the soup was delicious.

Pickles of sorts are common and particularly delicious are pickled mushrooms.

And then there is roasted quail....... and much more....

Fresh salads

Soup and chips 

Aveluk salad 

Pickled mushrooms 

True facts

 If you thought the days of holy relics was long gone, then Armenia has a surprise for you.

In the mother church of Armenian Orthodox Christianit at Etchmiadzan on the outskirts of Yerevan (established in the fourth century on the site of a pagan temple) there are not one, but three pieces of the True Cross.

While I was not expecting a huge piece of wood, nothing like something that could come in handy as a painting plank, I did expect a decent chunk of timber rather than than the tiny slivers on display. Look closely at the icons and you can see a dark smudge right in the middle - that is the wood.
































But wait there is more! Not only are there three pieces of the Cross, there is also the spear that pieced the side of Christ. They do admit that the cross in the middle was added a bit later, but the information goes to great lengths to explain that there are many bogus spears in the world but this of course is the real one.

 However, Armenians take this very seriously and there is a constant procession to kiss the holy icons.

And we are not finished yet! While the tombs of  martyred saints are common, having the murder weapon is definitely unusual. In the church of St Hripsime lies the tomb of the pious saint who was stoned to death by unbelievers in 301 AD.

Not only are the bones of the saint entombed in the crypt of the church, but also on display are the very stones that were used to kill Hripsime.  Now isn't that amazing!

The remains of the temple on which the church was built are strictly off bounds to visitors.

Trees....

Most of Armenia is rugged, bleak and treeless. Like much of the Mediterranean and Middle East, the forests disappeared centuries ago and overgrazing (by goats in particular) and the resulting change in climate, has meant that the forest has never recovered and the landscape remains desolate.

However in the northeast of Armenia towards the Georgian border, the altitude dips to 350 metres resulti in a warmer, wetter micro climate and green lush forests.  The area around the main town of town of Dilijan has long been a popular summer retreat for locals and Russians as far back as the nineteenth centre.

It is so wet that the newly constructed International School even has a thick turf roof.























Naturally there is yet another medieval monastery located in the verdant district - in this case the Haghartsin. Of the three churches in the complex, the oldest dates to the 13th century.

Lake Sevan - ecological disaster

In the heart of the Armenia highlands is the huge Lake Sevan, also known as the Armenian Sea. Covering 950sq km (Lake Taupo is 620), the level of the lake was lowered by 18m in the 1940s and 50s in order to create more arable land around the lake. To increase fish stocks new species of fish were introduced to lake. The result was an ecological disaster and is it not surprising that one of the engineers behind the project, Soukias Manasserian, was also an engineer on the catastrophic Aral Sea project.

The new fish species drove the indigenous species to the brink of extinction and the lower levels led to a toxic algae bloom, not previously seen before. In more recent years, environmentalists have campaigned to have the lake levels raised. While the process of raising the water level is not difficult, in the intervening years, homes, businesses and hotels have been built along the shores, many of which are owned by influential and politically powerful people.

Of course the lake is the home of an important religious complex dating back to the 7th century. Once an island, the ancient churches are now high and dry on a peninsula.

Karahunj or Armenian Stonehenge

In the south of the country on a high plateau is a complex of over 200 standing stones and an ancient iron barrow grave. Dating to around 5000BC, the complex is usually described as the 'world's oldest astronomical observatory' and is much older than both Stonehenge and the Pyramids.

The claim for an observatory is based on the fact that 47 stones have holes drilled in them and were used to study the night sky and that one of the avenue of stones align with the summer solstice. However, both these theories have since been debunked and the holes in the stones maybe have supported a substantial wooden structure and the whole complex is more likely to be an elaborate burial site.



Regardless of purpose, site is impressive covering over 5 hectares and is set in a stunningly beautiful location.

A bookshop? Maybe.

Tucked away in a quiet part of Yerevan is a small second hand bookshop. Located in a former cigarette and cigar store, the shop has retained a beautiful old interior of carved wooden fixtures and fittings. However, there are very few books. The English 'section' had just five books including a substantial Finnish/English dictionary and Linda Goodman's Star Signs for 2010 - which is handy if you want to see how your 2010 turned out against Ms Goodman's horoscope predictions.

I asked an Armenian friend about the bookshop but he didn't know the place and when I said that it must be almost impossible to make money out of such a shop, he merely shrugged smiled and replied 'Maybe they don't sell books and sell something else....' 

Republic Square, the heart of Yerevan

The pride of Soviet/Armenian architecture is the vast and stylish Republic Square, originally called Lenin Square. Designed by Russian born Armenian architect Alexander Tamanian, construction began in 1924 and was completed by 1929, though further developments continued through to 1958. 

Pride of place on the north eastern side of the square is the National Museum and Art Gallery opened in 1929. Built of light creamy stone, the gallery/museum contrasts with the pink tufted stone of the surrounding buildings. 

Oval in shape, the square is paved with stones designed to look like a traditional rug from the air.

The main government buildings around the square are all constructed from pink volcanic stone, art deco in style and decorated with Armenian motifs. A common building material, the distinctive coloured stone gives the city it's nickname "The Pink City".

The recent protests over the electricity prices rises were in this square (if they made the international news).