Geghard monastery is special for being partly built into the rock. It is located at Kotayk marz, not far from Yerevan, the capital. It is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Armenia. As the monastery is so well known and within easy reach of Yerevan, it attracts quite many day visitors.
The monastery is located in Azat River valley, known in Armenia for its beauty, and is near the Garni Temple. Many visit both on the same day trip. So did we. A friend of Eduardo gave us a Lada ride from Garni to Geghard.
Apart from tourism, the monastery makes some income from beekeeping – which I painfully noticed. I went a little too close to take pictures and got two or three bites in my head. Fortunately the resulting dizzyness went over pretty quickly.
When leaving the monastery, we bought some sweet gata bread (a delicacy of Armenia) and ate that on the walk to nearby village of Goght. There we visited the village cemetery and took the bus back to Yerevan.
Next page: Etchmiadzin »
See also:
Most of the photographs at this site are licensed under a Creative Commons
licence. See page of each image for further information.