from Goris to Sewan - Caucasian summer 2024 - 17
from Yerevan to Goris including visits to Chor Virap and Noravank
from Haghpat in Armenia to Tbilisi in Georgia
Tbilisi and back home
01.08.2024 - from Goris to Sewan
Today we head north again. The first part of the route is on the same road we used to get to Goris [↗]. So, we drive for about an hour on a winding road over the mountains through a nice landscape. Not spectacular, but nice.
First stop is at a supermarket, where we buy something for the planned picnic at lunchtime. The only problem is that the portions of bread, meat, and cheese are sized for whole households. So, I end up with a peach and some sweets. But next to the supermarket is a snack bar and there I find a kind of pizza calzone, which is sold by the slice and can also be taken away.
Now we'll climb nearly a thousand meters to the Selim Pass with a caravansary and the place for our picnic. The road is halfway ok, mostly a bit bumpy, some parts freshly paved, some under construction. The bus drives at 30-40 km/h - yesterday it was mostly 5-10 km/h.
Now the landscape becomes really beautiful, only some power lines are disturbing the view. On the other side, there are some patches of nice pink flowers brighten up the greenery. We take a short photo stop on the way and then move on to the caravansary.
We reach the place shortly afterwards. The caravansary is smaller than it sounded in the descriptions and of course, it's completely empty. Nevertheless, it's worth the stop. There is a stone table with two benches where we sit down and have our lunch, again with a great view.
The closer we get to Lake Sevan [↗], the more ordinary the landscape becomes. Initially, the next stop is planned to be the graveyard of Noratus, with its so-called khachkars. But as we approach the shore, we can stop at a nice, small chapel with khachkars too. On top we get the nice view of Lake Sewan.
At Noratus we drive straight to the graveyard [↗]. Here are hundreds of old gravestones called khachkars. They all face west, so it's perfect to be here in the afternoon. Interestingly, the modern cemetery is directly adjacent to the old field and copies its style. The further you move away from the old part, the more modern elements are added.
Not far away is Lake Sewan with its main attraction, the Sevanavank Monastery [↗]. Originally the monastery was built on an island, but during the Soviet era, the level of Lake Sevan was lowered by 20 meters, so that the area is now a peninsula. When you see how big the lake is today and how flat the area west of the lake is, it's hard to imagine how big it used to be when the shore was 20 meters higher.
The area in front of the monastery is terrible. Booths and restaurants playing loud music, cars struggle to find a parking, and hundreds of people are running around. And today is Thursday.
You have to walk up some 200 steps to get to the monastery. But that doesn't help, it's totally crowded. If you want to go there, be very early - I would estimate latest at 7am in summertime. Add-on bonus: The light comes from a much better direction. The only thing I don't know is whether the interior is accessible at this time.
More as a joke I suggest it to the guide and he replies that he might be able to convince the bus driver, but that it would be most probably only him and me to join 😉 .
Due to the situation here, we change our plan and do not stay for an early dinner, but stop at a supermarket with fast food stalls, so everybody can buy something to eat in the hotel.
While the area around Sevan was super touristy, a few kilometers away the scenery is dominated by failed real estate projects. Huge hotel complexes, but also single buildings rot away. A dreamland for lost places fans.
Our hotel has seen better days, too. Situated in the middle of nowhere, within a park and with private lake access, this Soviet-era building could be something special. In Germany, it would be a spa hotel or 5-star conference facility. But here the park is not well-kept, the rooms are large, but old, run-down, and noisy, dinner needs to be pre-ordered, and so on. But we're only here for one night and have stayed in much worse hotels. So, I can live with it.
