Travels through History - Armenia and the UK by Julian Worker

Author:Julian Worker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Armenia, England, travel, stories, travelogue, historical, learn, history
ISBN: 9781785385193
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2016
Published: 2016-05-24T00:00:00+00:00

The Park of Letters and Amberd

In 2005, the Armenian alphabet celebrated its 1600 th birthday. In commemoration, 39 large, carved Armenian letters were placed near the final resting place of the man who created the alphabet, Mesrop Mashtots. The place is known as the Park Of Letters and can’t be missed by anyone who is travelling towards Amberd Fortress.

When Mashtots began working on the Armenian alphabet, there was a lot of pressure on him, because the newly Christian kingdom needed a Bible in its own language. Elegantly planned, Mashtots laid out the structure of the alphabet around the religion. He made the first letter A, which was the first letter in the word Astvats, or God, and the last letter K’, which began the word K’ristos, Christ. He then added the intervening 34 letters and his system has been used ever since, aside from the addition of 3 more letters.

The Armenian architect, J. Torosyan, created the stone carvings of all 39 letters and set them against the backdrop of modern Armenia’s highest mountain, Mt. Aragats. The letters and statue of Mashtots pay tribute to this complex and unique language, a source of pride for Armenia.

From the Park of Letters the road to Amberd is not in great condition and it’s just as well there’s not much traffic around as drivers have to avoid large potholes and large cracks in the tarmac every few hundred yards. Amberd Fortress is one of those old places where visitors can climb all over the ruins without their being any warnings, in any language. The walls are mainly, but not all, in good condition and I enjoyed scrambling along one wall to a corner tower where I enjoyed tremendous views towards the mountains along a river gorge. If you suffer from vertigo though, don’t attempt this route as there’s a long drop on all sides.

The present Amberd fortress dates from the 12 th Century although there had been a stronghold at this site 500 years prior to this date. The fortress withstood the Mongols invaders in 1236, but was eventually abandoned in 1408. The church beneath the fortress, referred to as either the Vahramashen Church or Amberd Church, dates from 1026 and is worth a visit to see the umbrella-shaped cupola and the views the church enjoys.

On the way back to Yerevan I stopped at Saghmosavank (“Monastery of Psalms”) another Armenian sight close to a spectacular gorge, this time the Kasakh Gorge. The monastery has a large gavit to the west of the Zion church. A gavit serves as a narthex, mausoleum and assembly room for the church, but at Saghmosavank the gavit was built after both the Zion church and the smaller Mother of God Church.

I’d been told two Apostles brought Christianity to Armenia, namely St Bartholomew and St Thaddeus (or Jude). This seemed like a lot of apostles for one small country, and only left 10 for the rest of the known world. However, it may explain why Armenia became the first country to adopt Christianity, traditionally in the year 301.

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