Monastery · Syunik
Great Hermitage of Tatev
Տաթևի Մեծ Անապատ · Tatevi Anapat · Tatevi Mets Anapat
A walled hermitage where the Tatev stream joins the Vorotan river, begun in 1660 to replace an earlier hermitage lost to an earthquake, and screened from view by walnut and fig trees.
Where it is
39.3877, 46.2608
Why go
Rectangular limestone walls with towers enclose the basalt church of St Astvatsatsin, dated 1663, alongside living quarters, barns and a chapel added in 1743. More than 700 members of the community once lived here, and the hermitage became a centre of manuscript copying in Syunik. Because the trees hide it, the complex is hard to make out except from the opposite slope of the gorge, so it rewards travellers who set aside time for it after Tatev Monastery. Together with Tatev and the adjacent Vorotan valley, it appears on Armenia's World Heritage tentative list.
Near Great Hermitage of Tatev
Monastery
Tatev Monastery
Tatev's churches and defensive walls stand on a basalt promontory above the Vorotan gorge in Syunik, reached by road or by the Wings of Tatev cable car from Halidzor, and in the 14th century housed a noted university.
1 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monastery
Bgheno-Noravank
Reduced to a single small church dated 1062, this Syunik monastery stands on a triangular promontory above wooded gorges east of Bardzravan, its walls carved with ornamental borders and biblical reliefs.
9 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Historic site
Old Goris (Kyores) Cave Dwellings
The abandoned cave quarter of Kyores beside modern Goris, on the left bank of the Vararakn river, where the original town grew in and around a natural cave system.
16 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Historic site
Old Khndzoresk
An abandoned cave village cut into the slopes of a gorge near Goris, with around 2,000 rock dwellings and a swinging footbridge across the ravine.
19 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ