Theme Week Armenia – Yerevan

27 January 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  10 minutes

Republic Square and Government House © Sonanik/cc-by-sa-3.0

Republic Square and Government House © Sonanik/cc-by-sa-3.0

Yerevan (sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country, as its primate city. It has been the capital since 1918, the fourteenth in the history of Armenia and the seventh located in or around the Ararat Plain. The city also serves as the seat of the Araratian Pontifical Diocese, which is the largest diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church and one of the oldest dioceses in the world.   read more…

Theme Week Armenia – Ararat City

26 January 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Ararat City entrance from the M2 highway © Armineaghayan/cc-by-sa-4.0

Ararat City entrance from the M2 highway © Armineaghayan/cc-by-sa-4.0

Ararat is a town in the Ararat Municipality of the Ararat Province of Armenia, located on the YerevanNakhchivan highway, 42 km (26 mi) southeast of the capital Yerevan and 19 km (12 mi) south of the provincial centre Artashat. In the 2011 census, the population of the town was 20,235. As per the 2016 official estimate, the population is around 20,300.   read more…

Theme Week Armenia – Gyumri

25 January 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

City Hall © Valen1988/cc-by-sa-4.0

City Hall © Valen1988/cc-by-sa-4.0

Gyumri is an urban municipal community and the second-largest city in Armenia, serving as the administrative center of Shirak Province in the northwestern part of the country. By the end of the 19th century, when the city was known as Alexandropol, it became the largest city of Russian-ruled Eastern Armenia with a population above that of Yerevan. The city became renowned as a cultural hub, while also carrying significance as a major center of Russian troops during Russo-Turkish wars of the 19th century.   read more…

Theme Week Armenia – Vagharshapat

24 January 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  9 minutes

Zvartnots Cathedral and Mount Ararat © Vahagn Grigoryan/cc-by-sa-4.0

Zvartnots Cathedral and Mount Ararat © Vahagn Grigoryan/cc-by-sa-4.0

Vagharshapat is the 4th-largest city in Armenia and the most populous municipal community of Armavir Province, located about 18 km (11 mi) west of the capital Yerevan, and 10 km (6 mi) north of the closed Turkish-Armenian border. It is commonly known as Ejmiatsin (also spelled Echmiadzin or Etchmiadzin), which was its official name between 1945 and 1995. It is still commonly used colloquially and in official bureaucracy, a case of dual naming.   read more…

Theme Week Armenia – Vanadzor

23 January 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  12 minutes

Gugark Hotel © Armineaghayan/cc-by-sa-4.0

Gugark Hotel © Armineaghayan/cc-by-sa-4.0

Vanadzor is an urban municipal community and the third largest city in Armenia, serving as the capital of Lori Province in the northern part of the country. It is located about 128 kilometres (80 miles) north of the capital Yerevan. As of the 2011 census, the city had a population of 86,199, down from 148,876 reported at the 1979 official census. Currently, the town has a population of approximately 76,000. Vanadzor is the seat of the Diocese of Gougark of the Armenian Apostolic Church.   read more…

Theme Week Armenia

22 January 2024 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  16 minutes

Etchmiadzin Cathedral, UNESCO World Heritage Site © Areg Amirkhanian/cc-by-sa-3.0

Etchmiadzin Cathedral, UNESCO World Heritage Site © Areg Amirkhanian/cc-by-sa-3.0

Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to the south. Yerevan is the capital, largest city and financial center.   read more…

Theme Week Georgia – Tbilisi

28 November 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

View from Narikala fortress © Marcin Konsek/cc-by-sa-4.0

View from Narikala fortress © Marcin Konsek/cc-by-sa-4.0

Tbilisi, in some countries also still known by its pre-1936 international designation, Tiflis, is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million people. Tbilisi was founded in the 5th century AD by Vakhtang I of Iberia, and since then has served as the capital of various Georgian kingdoms and republics. Between 1801 and 1917, then part of the Russian Empire, Tbilisi was the seat of the Imperial Viceroy, governing both Southern and Northern Caucasus.   read more…

Theme Week Georgia

23 November 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon voyage, Theme Weeks, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  9 minutes

Changing skyline of Batumi © flickr.com - jagermesh/cc-by-sa-2.0

Changing skyline of Batumi © flickr.com – jagermesh/cc-by-sa-2.0

Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the east by Azerbaijan, and to the south by Armenia and Turkey. The capital and largest city is Tbilisi. Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 square kilometres (26,911 sq mi), and its approximate population is about 4 million. Georgia is a unitary parliamentary republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy.   read more…

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