Armenia May 11

Sunday May  11

Up early by bus to Armenia.   At the border, we must change buses and drivers, so we trudge our baggage a couple hundred meters and change our money from Georgian lari to Armenian dram.

 Like Georgia, Armenia has a unique alphabet.  Georgia's has 33 characters...

and Armenia's has 39.

 Each alphabet was devised to fit the language (one sound per letter).  The first version of the Georgian alphabet was being used by the end of the 4th century.  The current Georgian alphabet is said to be derived from grapevine tendrils.  The Armenian alphabet was created by Mestrop Mashtots in 405.  He was sainted for his effort and is very well known in Armenia.

Both Georgia and Armenia are Christian:  Georgia is Orthodox; Armenia is Apostolic.

 The Armenian Apostolic Church is so designated as the first to bring Christianity to Armenia were Saints Bartholomew and Thaddeus, two of the apostles, the followers of Christ.  In the late 3rd century, Saint Gregory the Illuminator was imprisoned for 13 years by the king for evangelizing. He was released when the king was sick and Saint Gregory's prayers healed him. The king therefore declared Christianity the state religion in 301 and Gregory became the first head if the church, the Catholicos.  To enforce the state religion, all pagan temples were destroyed (except for Garni, infra) and churches built on them.  However, to make the new religion more palatable, some pagan ritual was incorporated.  This included animal sacrifice which is still practiced today.  To what extent we do not know, but we saw this sheep being led out of the church where it was possibly blessed for ritual sacrifice.

Our main stop is at the Hagphat Monastery, perched above the industrial town of Yesayan.  The monastery was built in the 10th century.

It has very thick walls to resist earthquakes.  Also, the main church has clever interlocking blocks.

Everything is beautifully carved.

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YeSayan has a seven-hundred-year-old bridge.

Lunch was at the home of a couple who belonged to a sect (name unknown) that separated from the Russian Orthodox Church. They split over issues like icons.  They resemble the Amish in their rejection of modern technology.  Our host had the only TV in the community. We were not allowed to take pictures lest they end up on the internet.

The meal was a cup of tea, meat borscht, and compote ( sweet fruit juice).  On the table were the usual salad, bread stuffed with cabbage and carrots and fried potato bread.

Dinner was a stuffed baked lavash stuffed with beef and chicken.  We had a lecture from Boris, a local archaeologist who is excavating a site we will visit.  He found evidence of cannabalistic offerings.  More on this when we visit Areni.