NOTES: SIUNUK Travel Guide® TOC INTRODUCTION Spendiarian Lake Area: 4506 sq. km Angeghakot Population: 80,000 Shaki Administrative Center: Kapan Distance from Yerevan: 320 km SISSIAN Marzpetaran: (285) 62 010 Karahundj Standing Stones Largest City: Kapan Ughtasar Petroglyphs Aghudi Kapan: Vorotnavank Hospital, Tel: (285) 62 183 Vorotan springs Police, Tel:(285) 63 949 Vorotnaberd Haypost, Tel: (285) 63 786 Goris: Portakar Hospital, Tel: ]284) 22 152 Shinuhair Haypost, Tel: (284) 23 150 Devil’s Bridge Sissian: Tatev Hospital, Tel: (2830) 35 01 Haypost, Tel:(2830) 43 85 GORIS Megri: Verishen Haypost, Tel.: (2860) 32 52 Sev Lich Mt. Mets Ishkhanasar Khndzoresk BACKGROUND Karahundj Village Vorotan River Canyon ADVENTURE TOUR GUIDES Bgheno Noravank Guides Yeritsavank Andrey Chesnokov, 10 Vardanants p, Apt. #49 tel. 010-576757, email: [email protected], is one of KAPAN the highest regarded mountaineers in Armenia, Halidzor having led numerous trips up mountains Vahanavank throughout eh country and the Caucasus. He is Baghaberd equally, friendly and professionally focused, insuring safe climbs. Kadjaran Vahravar Village Spitak Rescue Team, 50 Halabian p, tel. 010- 350006, 350186, email: [email protected], is MEGHRI a highly trusted group of mountaineering Shvanidzor individuals who provide hiking, climbing, rappelling Nerkin Hand Shikhahot Forest and other adventure tours in Armenia. They are mountain rescue providers, so are very safe, with RESOURCES emergency transport and equipment if needed. INKAR LLC, tel. 010-744226, 093-744226, email: [email protected], URL: www.amtour.am, a geological company that has begun offering speleological tours with its mountain trekking tours. Siunik Marz : 2 of 51 - TourArmenia © 2009 Rick Ney ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - www.TACentral.com Travel Guide® or Ughtasar, and hikes south and west explore the convened a secret meeting of eleven Meliks to EXPLORING THE REGION S Siunik/Vayots Dzor border).  From --- to (DD ) petition Peter the Great to intervene on Armenia’s behalf. The young man spent most of his life in TRIP 1: TO SISSIAN S The reservoir is named for a Soviet proto-hero, SIDE TRIP: Spandarian (pop. ) the courts of the Czar, Leopold the Great, and Suren Spandarian (1882-1916). Spandarian, a Pope Clement XI seeking support for the country. native of Artsakh, was a student at Moscow Finally obtaining their support, he infiltrated the  From --- to (DD ) 4 + Æ O University when he joined the Bolshevik movement  From --- to ANGEGHAKOT (DD 39.56876 x court of the Persian Shah on reconnaissance, and began his revolutionary work in 1901, 45.94062, elev. 1845m) 4 + Æ O planning an invasion with Armenian and Georgian SIDE TRIP: Vorotan Pass, (pop. ) attempting to organize Moscow factory workers. leaders. He fought in the 1905 revolution, in Moscow and ² ANGEGHAKOT - ²Ü¶ºÔ²Îà then the Caucasus. He became a member of the On return to Russia in 1711, Ori suddenly died, (²Ý·»Õ³ÏáÃ) S (pop. 1000) is one of the oldest  From --- to (DD ) Baku committee in 1907, then moved to Tbilisi in ending plans for an early liberation of the country. settlements in Siunik, with large Paleolithic and SIDE TRIP: Goraik, (pop. ) 1910. Neolithic settlements found in the village and The village was attached to Zangezur in the 18th- nearby. It is located on the north shore of the Escaping near arrest, in 1911-1912 he attended 19th cc reorganization of the region, and was a Angeghakot Reservoir, and is about 15 km from  From --- to (DD ) the All Russia Bolshevik convention in Prague, spotlight in the 1918-1919 struggle to maintain where he was elected as a member of the Central Sissian using the (M2) highway. autonomy against Turkish aggression and Stalin’s SIDE TRIP: Mets Karakhach (pop. ) Committee Russian bureau. He returned to plans to sever Zangezur from Armenia and award Russia, where he was arrested in 1912 and sent to [MAP] it to Turkey. Siberia, where he continued his revolutionary work, attempting to organize the prisoners. He The village has Bronze Age Dolman graves, Failing that, Stalin then determined the district  From --- to SPANDARIAN RESERVOIR (DD died in 1916, on the eve of the Bolshevik standing stones with eyeholes used in an ancient should go to Turkish Azerbaijan, and Angeghakot 39.67405 x 45.81127, elev. 2105m) 4 + O Revolution. observatory/worship cromlech, 5 churches (3 was in the vanguard of resistance led by Garegin standing), medieval cemeteries with khachkars Nzhdeh in 1920-1921, ended in Moscow [MAP] Camping in the area (alpine country: cold at and pagan stones, and a nearby pilgrimage church recognizing Zangezur as a part of the Soviet nights); overnight in nearby village (rustic; 3000 of S. Vartan. Republic of Armenia. ² SPANDARIAN RESERVOIR - AMD for B&B is fair); springs in villages. êä²Ü¸²ðÚ²ÜÆ çñÙμ. (êå³Ý¹³ñÛ³Ý çñÙμ.) S Background Ongoing excavations have uncovered The village exists mostly on remittances from its begins on the eastern end of Goraik and stretches a major 6th millennium BCE settlement with a  From --- to (DD ) younger generation which lives and works abroad. for 7 km to the west end of Sarnakunk. The large number of artifacts. The settlement has reservoir was built to both irrigate wheat fields on SIDE TRIP: Mets Karakhach (pop. ) strong similarities to the Mesopotamian Neolithic The village has Neolithic dolmens and Bronze the high plateau and to harness the hydroelectric culture, and gives clues to ancestral Armenian Age/Iron Age tumuli. In the area in front of the potential of the Vorotan River. It now is part of a early development in eastern Armenia. post office and the school yard (DD 39.56894 x massive tunnel project to feed Lake Sevan. The 45.94091, elev. 1845m), there are a number of 17 km tunnel funnels water from Spandarian An important Pagan worship site, the village had at  From --- to (DD ) old stones, Bronze Age tumuli that cover a large Reservoir to the Arpa River tunnel, a 27 km tunnel least one observatory like that at Karahundj near part of the village center. The stones are that feeds Lake Sevan. Sissian; the standing stones with their carefully SIDE TRIP: Tsghuk (pop. ) impossible to miss; rough cut, rounded, many with carved eye-holes are all around the village; in rudimentary crosses carved on them in the 4th Authorities moved the inhabitants of two villages church walls, cemeteries, and in villager century to convert” them; but with the to fill the reservoir. Goraik was moved west, its backyards. unmistakable signs of their observatory purpose: cemetery relocated on a hill overlooking the both  From --- to (DD ) carefully carved eye-holes that once pointed to shores (seen from the highway, a tall monument The village churches were first erected in the 4th- phenomenon in the night sky. notes the old village), but the citizens of the old SIDE TRIP: Sarnakunk (pop. ) 5th cc, incorporating pre\Christian buildings in Molokan village of Borizovka was not moved. Its their construction. Though there is no record of a A Paleolithic deposit at 1800m was uncovered by citizens were resettled in nearby Tsghuk or It is located above pastures of Sarnakunk village in monastery, the village was an important French-Armenian archeologists in 2005, which Yerevan. Sissian region, on the surface of Ughtasar and pilgrimage site, with 7 churches, shrines and the continues to show a highly developed culture in Djermajur rocks, which are 3000-3300m above pilgrimage sight of S. Vartan listed in medieval annual digs. The findings point to large groups of The lake is beautiful, a placid mirror of blue in the sea level. The deepness of each rock picture is 1- chronicles. Angeghakot’s religious structures are hunter-gathers from the Paleolithic era that emerald green alpine region. Bitterly cold and 6mm. The rock pictures are irreplaceable history generally older, and smaller, than those further infiltrated the area. The settlement had a snowbound for 9 months of the year, the lake is a sources. Old people living in our highlands left rich south. substantial lithic (chipped stone tool) industry welcome respite of cool during the short summer, materials to be studied about their life, worships, which principally used obsidian that was the region remote and inviting for outdoors traditions and occupations. The first group of rock This did not signify a loss of the village’s elaborately carved into a number of tools. The enthusiast who love the high plains. Hiking trails pictures belong to the B.C. 5-4 millenniums and importance, however; some of the more important style and type are identical to Mousterian lead to neighboring mountains (a day hike will the second group belongs to the B.C. 3-2 figures in Siunik history came from Angeghakot, (Neanderthal bifacial tools found t Zagros-Taurus take you to the petroglyph fields at Mt. Davagioz millenniums. including the famous 17th c Melik, Israel Ori, who mountain settlements of the same period. The Siunik Marz : 3 of 51 - TourArmenia © 2009 Rick Ney ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - www.TACentral.com Travel Guide® stone tools are highly refined, with numerous a neighbor and they will call the person with the nature. The western entry retains its cyclopean permitted to own land—unheard of in medieval points or teeth, and include micro-edges and flared key. door jamb and some of the arching remains. Europe and Byzantium). A large Jewish cemetery facets. has been uncovered at Yeghegis, the Orbelian The church is made of rough stone, with The old cemetery (DD 39.57329 x 45.93814, capital in the 13th c. The village has three standing churches, out of 7 embedded khachkars and old burial stones. The elev. 1860m) is in the N end of the village is recorded in history.