ITINERARY

Goris -> Wings of Tatev
Tatev -> Karahunj
Karahunj -> Jermuk
Jermuk -> Areni

Easy paved roads the whole way with beautiful changing scenery

GORIS

Goris is the 2nd largest city in the Syunik province with pop. of around 20,500 and is one of Armenias important cultural and heritage site, settled in the Stone Age

Goris Gate – welcoming visitors into Goris – you can climb up the monument and have great views over the canyon and valley
This is a pic of Old Goris before 1898 with the densly packed stone houses nestled in the canyon

We stayed the night in Goris but because we arrived late and the town was dark we couldnt explore, so had to wait until morning… and what an awesome surprise this little town was!

Goris town map

The town is well know for its late 18th c 2 storey homes with their own unique personalities – they had cute ornate balconies and they are built beautifully with personality

Because Goris is so close to the Azerbeijiani border, we had to take extra care, there are many bases around and we have heard from the locals that they are still shooting people if you get too close to their border
The Lachin corridor, which was once our only way to get through to Armenian occupied Kharabagh, (shown in red lines on this photo) is now taken over by Azeris and blocked so there is no way of getting in or out, the Armenians in Karabagh are in forced lockdown and the goods that Armenia is trying to send through to them is getting blocked, there are trucks all lined up with humanitarian aid that are not being let it… its a really sad and bad situation and no government around the world is really caring – yet keep sending billions daily over to Ukraine (where THAT money really goes who even knows!) there is so much politics involved and its destroying human lives

Its so sad to think that I was in Karabagh in 2019 where the Pan Armenian games opening ceremony was held, we did it there to bring some money and support to the Armenians of Karabagh and it really boosted their spirit and their city

Breakfast at the hotel – beautiful fresh fruit and veggies
The streets of Goris and their russian cars
House Museum of Axel Baghunts
One of the 19th c homes on the road in to the city centre
Khatckar at Axel Museum House
Every house had its own unique style and they used the stone in an interesting and asthetically beautiful way – i love the large balconies
A random “Shane” food court! Not a very Armenian name but anyways!
Our beautiful hotel Mirhav
Polpolak (bubbler) with fresh water from the mountains in front of the newly built pharmacy in the centre

They are in the process of creating new buildings here and fixing the roads its great to see the progress and upgrades they are doing to this area even having gone through so much during the war – slow progress is being made in this village

Saint Gregory The Illuminator – a cute little church beautifully presented, clean and well maintained – we went inside and lit a candle and took in the atmosphere

There were no tourists around, just the locals and they were looking at us westerners walking around, reminded me of how Yerevan was around 15 years ago when they just began seeing tourists from outside

The beautiful paintings on the inside of the church
This is one of the new buildings they are making, such beautiful and detailed design work has gone into it set with heavy grey stone
The back streets where the locals live

But its a real threat being this close to the border so Goris has seen a real drop in tourist numbers, even when we were there, there really werent a lot of tourists at all

TATEV & WINGS OF TATEV

I love Tatev! Been here a few times but its still magical exploring this complex and taking in the energy of the area

Tatev is a 9th c. Armenian Apostolic monastery and its sits on a plateau near the village of Tatev and it looks over a deep gorge overlooking the Vorotan River

The wings of Tatev cable car spans the canyon with amazing views over Halidzor and the canyon
Modern ticketing systems here at The Wings! Def a new thing for Armenia – the longest non stop double track cable car
Old Halidzor a village in the canyon
The first glimpse of Tatev Monastery (top right)
The Tatev monastery map
St Paul & St Peter Church in the monastery complex

There are 3 churches in the complex – a library, a reflectory, bell tower, mausoleum as well as some admin buildings

Exploring some of the buildings, there are so many rooms you can wander around and there are different floors and rooms underneath into the cliff floor
The beautiful details of the door to one of the churches
The main church from the back

In the 14th and 15th c. there used to be a medieval university hosted here which was around science, religion and philosophy

We drove down these roads! I love the windy roads but there are huge trucks driving so fast down these roads like they are motorbikes! Armenian drivers are crazy and there are no real road rules on overtaking or even just DRIVING for that matter!

And on the road again…

The colourful and ever changing Armenian landscape
Loved the colours of the neon yellow flowers sprinked along the way

KARAHUNJ – “Speaking Stones”

Also known as the Armenian Stonehenge this place is seriously energetically magical!

7500 year old ancient site is not very well known around the world… thats 3500 years older than the UK Stonehenge! 😱 its located in an area of around 7 hectares along the Dar River canyon

This is the 2nd time ive explored here and the area and the rushing wind and the place itself just has such an energy to it! I love just being there and walking around all the rocks and touching them and taking in their vibrations and energies – I felt invigorated and energetic after our visit…

Karahunj is a prehistoric archeological site near the village of Sissian sitting at 1,770m above sea level

Karahunj comes from the word kar which means stone and hunge which means sound so the word means “speaking stones” which comes from the whistling noise they make on a windy day as majority of the stones have perfectly round shaped holes in them

Karahunge from above – there is the central circle, the north arm and south arm and a north-east alley

The site is full of standing basalt menhirs and burial cists, in total 223 stones

One of the stones with a perfectly carved circle – there are 80 stones with a circular hole – I love the colours of the stones as they have eroded and overgrown with moss and lichen of many different colours
The landscape has such beautiful rich colours! Every photo you take comes out beautifully!

There are suggestions that these stones were used for astronomical observations – 17 of the stones are associated with observations of sunrise or sunset at the solstices and equinoxes and 14 with lunar

Seems like the holes bored into some of the stones are much better preserved so its said that they may not be prehistoric and they are not sure what their actual purpose really is!

Provinces of Syronik and Vayots Dzor border
There are not many bodies of water in Armenia. The few around are reserviors
Another beautiful medieval armenian church sitting all on its own in the beautiful landscape

JERMUK

Vayots Dzor province

A mountain spa town which I have been wanting to visit for years now!

Jermuk is well known for its hot springs and the mineral water branded “Jermuk” they have their huge factory here and its all bottled in the town its named after

There are around 5,500 ppl living here

The waterfall can be climbed up and you can take some really nice pics
Its also called “the mermaids hair” and at a height of 72m and splits into the Arpa River
Jermuk Waterfall tourist shot
The interesting rocks surrounding the waterfall
Our car parked amongst the locals soviet looking cars

The town is being developed (even after the disruption of covid) and there are heaps of developments going on – they are wanting to become the modern centre of tourism and health services, another thing its being set up to be is a major chess centre with international tournaments to take place here

The Grand Hotel in Jermuk is an outstandingly loud and out there building which you cant miss
One of the main attractions is the Jermuk Mineral Water Gallery – there are 5 types of local mineral water with different temperatures ranging from 30 to 57 degrees

The water flows naturally from pipes into these ornate looking carved stone jars

The sunset from our drive towards Areni