ARTASHAVAN / ARMENIA
37 mins north from Yerevan

On the western slope of Mount Aragats

In 2005, the Armenian Alphabet celebrated its 1600th bday!

In commemoration 39 giant carved Armenian letters were placed near his final resting place of Mesrop Mashtots

37 Mins from Yerevan City

When Mashtots began working on an Armenian alphabet, it was under great pressure so that it could be used to create a bible for the newly formed Christian kingdom.

Mashtots laid out the structure of the alphabet around the religion.

He made the first letter A, which was the first letter in the word Astvats, or God, and the last letter K’, which began the word K’ristos, Christ.

He then put the finishing touches on the last 34 letters and his system has been used ever since, aside from the addition of 3 more letters

The views from the car of the countryside is just beautiful! broken down cars, random russian looking cars everywhere
The cows stopped us a few times to cross the road
We passed by this huge cross! Its newly built with a new church nearby and they add a new cross on it every year
Newly built area and stage
By Armenian architect J. Torosyan
We were the only ones there snooping around
Peaceful countryside…
Set infront of Aragats Mountain
They keep adding 1 cross per year to this monument
You cant go a trip without getting stopped at least twice by a herd of some sort of cattle – i quite enjoy watching them slowly walk not given a care in the world!
The beautiful scenery along the way
Soviet vehicles are scattered all around the country mostly when you leave Yerevan you see more old school vehicles like this

An enjoyable trip, the Alphabet is worth seeing and taking a photo with your favourite letter