Journey to Khndsoresk and Tatev

     On Sunday, August 5, I went with a tour group, Arevi, to the village of Khndsoresk and the church/monastery/fortress of Tatev.  I'd been to Tatev last time I was in Armenia, but it's so beautiful, I wanted to go again.

     Gevorg Gasparyan is the owner and guide for Arevi. I learned about him through Gohar P. at the Fuller Center.  During the trip to Khndsoresk, Gevorg and I discovered that we both play duduk and guitar.  More on that later.

Khndsoresk - the black dots are caves.

The suspension bridge to Khdsoresk and my newest brother - Avo-jan

     Khndoresk - means Apple Village - Khndzoresk is widely famous for its canyon with picturesque rock formations and ancient cave settlement. The artificial caves, some of which are currently used as stables and warehouses, used to be inhabited till the 1950s. In the bottom of the gorge there is St.Hripsime church, dated back to 17th century.
   We had lunch near the village and Gevorg brought a guitar along so we shared some songs.

And we also played duduks in the church of St. Hripsime.

Later we went to Tatev an absolutely jaw-dropping church perched high up in the mountains. I always marvel at how much work it must have been to quarry, shape and move the stones to this spot.  We took a tram car/funicular to Tatev. It is new and is the highest and longest in the world.  There is a Guiness Book of Records stamp on the signs to attest to that.

 

Tatev and some detail of the archway.

Our happy group finally got back to Yerevan at about 12:00 midnight. It was by far the best tour I've been on. More casual and relaxed than some of the older tour companies.  Gevorg was wonderful as a tour guide and made sure I understood everything he was explaining.  The group was all Armenians (native language) from Armenia, Russia, France and me from the US. Everybody was wonderful, outgoing, sharing of food and laughter.  I would recommend to anyone coming to Armenia to travel with Gevorg.  www.arevi.am