About Armenia

On the crossroads between Europe and Asia, Armenia is a mountainous country in the Southern Caucasus, with a dramatically beautiful landscape characterised by rugged mountains and extinct volcanos. The highest peak, Mount Aragats, rises to 4090 meters above sea level and Mount Ararat, just over the border in Turkey, looms over the capital, Yerevan at 5165 meters.¹ Said to be the resting place of Noah’s Ark, Mount Ararat is the national symbol of Armenia.

Overlooked by the monastic complex, Sevanavank, Lake Sevan is the largest lake in the Caucasus and covers close to 5% of Armenian territory. With relatively untouched nature, the slopes of Armenia’s mountains contain many habitats, ranging from semi-desert to beech forests and alpine meadows, which are home to over 3000 species of plants and hundreds of species of animal.²

Armenia has a rich and complex history. One of the world’s oldest civilizations, at its height, Armenia extended from the south-central Black Sea coast to the Caspian Sea and from the Mediterranean Sea to Lake Urmia in present day Iran.³ It is home to the world’s oldest winery, which was recently discovered near the village of Areni, in the same cave that an immaculately preserved 5500-year-old leather moccasin was found.⁴ The Armenian capital, Yerevan, is one of the world’s oldest inhabited cities, constructed 39 years before Rome.⁵ Known as the ‘Pink City’,many of its buildings are constructed from tufa, a pink coloured volcanic rock found locally.

Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity in 301 AD. Known as the land of churches, Armenia is home to millennia old monasteries and Cathedrals. The earliest domed church is the Cathedral of Etchmiadzin, which was built in 301-303 AD by King Trdat III and Saint Gregory the Illuminator. The Cathedral and Churches of Etchmiadzin and the Archaeological Site of Zvardnots are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site⁶, together with the monasteries of Haghpat and Sanahin and the monastery of Gerghard in the Upper Azat Valley⁷. Gerghard is a series of churches and tombs, many of them carved into the surrounding rock, which illustrate the peak of Armenian medieval architecture. Set in a landscape of stunning beauty, it is surrounded by towering cliffs at the entrance to the Azat valley. Gerghard takes its name from the tip of the spear that wounded Christ on the Cross that, as legend has it, was brought here by the Apostle Thaddeus and is now housed in the museum at Etchmiadzin.⁸

Bordered by Georgia, Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan, Armenia lies on the route of the Great Silk Road. As a result, it has been subject to centuries of invasion and occupation from neighbouring Ottoman and Persian empires which has threatened the existence of the Armenian people.

Armenian history is interwoven with tragedy which dominates political discourse today. The nineteenth century witnessed massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, which in 1915-1923 culminated in the Armenian genocide, in which 1.5 million Armenians perished. Armenia is home to around 3 million people, many of whom are descendants of the survivors of the genocide. A much larger population of 7 - 10 million⁹ diaspora Armenians live scattered across the world, many of whom are also descendants of the survivors of the genocide as well as other conflicts.

Conflict continues to overshadow the lives of the Armenian people. The recent 44-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh, which ended with a cease-fire agreement signed on November 9th 2020, saw over 5000 killed and approximately 40,000 people unable to safely return home.