The boys had a couple of days off of school so we decided to go and see a few things here in Armenia. Our time is quickly going by and it would be embarrassing if we left the country without seeing anything. We first went to Khor Virap, less than 400 feet from the border with Turkey. This is one of the most famous sites in Armenia, where St. Gregory the Illuminator was imprisoned for 13 or so years before converting the king (and the country) to Christianity. Here is a link to more information if you are interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khor_Virap
There isn't a lot to see, but it is a beautiful area and we enjoyed walking around both inside the walls and outside.
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| Evidently Rob was walking behind me in this shot. |
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| View from up the path a little way. |
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| Surrounding area. The area on the left is a cemetery. |
There are a couple of places you can climb down into underground chambers. I went down one which had really rough stairs and then a little ledge and then a ladder type thing. It was not a comfortable fit to get up and down. Ryan wanted to go with me, but he didn't really have the leg span to be able to reach. I took a picture once I got to the bottom to show what it looked like.
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| Here I am trying to get up and out of this horrible hole. |
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| Not too big or exciting. |
I thought this was the place St. Gregory had been. Evidently that was the other hole that I did not enter. It was a round manhole sized opening with a rather scary ladder going down into darkness. The previous link has a picture of what it was like. It seems to be larger, but I still wouldn't want to spend 13 years in there with all sorts of creepy crawlies.
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A thing by the door. I am guessing St. Gregory, but who knows.
(I would make the best tour guide!) |
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| A lot of the walls had writing on them. I am sure that you can make it out. :) |
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Here are my cuties by the main entrance in.
As opposed to the main entrance out? I suppose obviously an entrance is for going in.
This is also the main exit. It is for going out. :) |
Now of course there are tour buses and people from all over coming to see this and other major sites on their tour of Armenia. Some are old, some are young. Some have packs and bikes and are roughing it. Some are all dressed up. This guy was my favorite though. I mean, check out that mustache. I really wanted to point it out to my boys. It made me think of some Mario villain or something. I was so excited when I saw him coming out of the chapel and I could get this shot while making it look like I was getting the building.
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| Ryan on the way back down. |
Ryan and I walked over to the cemetery for a little while. Justin and Rob waited for us because Justin had no interest. It was really a poorly kept area in my opinion, which I found odd as many of the graves were recent. This isn't some old abandoned cemetery or anything. What I found interesting though was the pictures that many of the stones had on them. I think it is nice to see a picture of what the person looked like.
