Why you should visit Armenia?

Mount Ararat

Not only because Armenians are the oldest Christian nation in the world. Armenia became the first country to adopt Christianity as the official state religionin 301 AD. Every Christian must see the Ararat at least once in his life.

Any story about Armenia would not be complete without a few words about its people. Armenians count for 97 percent of the entire population and are famous for Caucasian hospitality.'' A famous guidebook says, "Sometimes, the desire of the local people to help a foreigner becomes so strong and intense that manyscare the latter, especially the young, who often insist too vigorously to make a foreigner join their party and share a few glasses of wine.''

The rich and dynamic history of the country, deeply rooted in Christianity, has made a deep impact on Armenia's monuments. Boasting that it was the firstcountry to adopt Christianity, monasteries and temples can be found all over the country.

Famous English poet Lord Byron said the following about Armenia: "Thiscountry is to remain arguably as the most interesting one on the whole Earth.'' Not many small countries can boast such compliments from such well-known, well-traveled people.

Armenia is a safe country for tourists. The biggest "danger'' for a foreigner is overeating.

The Armenians' desire to show hospitality leads them to offer guests countless dishes, making it impossible to eat them all. The problem is that the local food is so tasty and those offering it to you are sincere.

The Cross Stones - Armenian cross stones (khachkars) are a vivid, sanguineous phenomena in medieval art. Crosses, carved on stelae long ago beginning fromthe 5-6th centuries, serving as memorial or exhortational monuments in Christiancountries, were known to Egypt, Northern Caucasus, Europe and northern Russia. In Armenia, however, khachkars are embodied with an especially rich artistic content and are valuable achievements in Armenian monumental art.

Armenian Brandy - from 1953 until 1991 YBC was the only plant that produced Armenian brandy. The remaining plants of Armenia were occupied solely by distillation. YBC bottled ordinary (three -, four- and five-year) brandy's as well as the famous labelled brands ("Dvin", "Yerevan", "Nairi", "Vaspurakan", "Ararat"and "Akhtamar"). YBC's monopoly to bottle and export brandy was liquidated in1991. For more than 20 years (from 1948 through 1973) the chief technologist ofYBC was Markar Setrakyan. YBC was privatized in 1998 and was sold to the international group "Pernod Ricard".

Armenian Duduk- Sayings from famous Djivan Gasparyan - If you are armenian - duduk is your soul and heart, pleasure and grief, happiness and pain, hopes and memoirs… Aren't you Armenian? Then this instrument is in the film “Black Rock” performed by Michael Brook, “Sister Chaos”performed by Boris Grebenshikov, Peter Gabriel, Djivan Gasparyan and soundtracks for the films “The Last Temptation of Christ”, “Seige”, “Gladiator”,“The Russia House”, “Onegin”, “The Crow”, “Calendar”, “Doctor Zhivago”,“Frescos” etc.

The Duduk is your contact with Armenian soul and heart, humanpleasure and grief, happiness and pain, hopes and memoirIt is known that dudukis an Armenian national instrument with exceptional sounding. Today duduk knows no limits and borders. The wonderful sounds can be heard in international symphony, jazz and rock.

Written by Anna Davidyan, www.travelarmenia.am

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