Epress.am News from Armenia
Russian blogger and photographer Ilya Varlamov published photos from the third and last day of his recent trip to Armenia. On his last day, he decided to go to the highest mountain within Armenia’s present-day borders — Aragats. Conveniently, the road leading to Mount Aragats was opened just a few days earlier.
“Early in the morning, I went to greet the dawn at Victory Park. The city was still asleep, and the first rays of sun illuminated the top of Mount Ararat!
“I wrote about the city in the first post. By the end of my trip, my attitude toward Yerevan had not changed — a decrepit, dusty Soviet city.
“Among the Armenians, as among the Russians, everything is divided very well into [that which is] ‘mine’ and [that which belongs to] ‘others.’ In Yerevan, there might be a mansion worth a million dollars, while across it, there’s a broken-down road. Every day, the owner of the mansion will go around the potholes and… with his Bentley, but never mend the roads — they belong to ‘others.’
“Here [in the image below] you can see that the owner of the expensive house decided to install ‘beautiful lights’,” but only right outside his property, without negotiating with his neighbors to install lights along the entire street, writes Varlamov. “Since in Yerevan, everyone only thinks of himself, chaos and ruin reigns in the city… What is happening now with your city, it’s terrible; you will destroy it completely with this haphazard construction, with the elite palaces at the heart of the city and this attitude of carelessness toward history. Unfortunately, a similar situation exists in Moscow.”
“Only the immensely beautiful nature saves the city.”
US Embassy in Yerevan (below).
“There is still 6 hours before the flight: you can manage to reach a few more heights! It’s time to go to the mountains.”
Armenian (Metsamor) Nuclear Power Plant (below).
“On a hillside at an altitude of 2,140 meters is the Amberd fortress [below].”
“Aragats is a volcano, but there have never been eruptions recorded in its entire history.”
“There’s more and more snow, but the road is clean.”
“There are many legends and traditions connected to Mount Aragats, particularly, about the period of the adoption of Christianity, when St. Gregory the Illuminator ascended to the top of Aragats for prayer, while an eternal lantern, hanging from the heavens, came down to shed light on him. According to the legend, the lantern still illuminates the night, but only the devoted [those pure in heart and spirit] can see it.”
“Road: In winter, it’s closed; it opens only in late May.”
“That’s all. Immediately from coming down from the mountain, we went to the airport.”
All photos by Ilya Varlamov.