During this past month, I managed to make some trips in Armenia. So just a few shots that I wanted to share with you.
Haghpat Monastery
a77 + Zeiss 24/2

Sanahin Monastery

a77 + Zeiss 2/24



shot hand held at 1/3s was quite dark inside


Column with a cross-stone (Khachkar) at top

Khachkar at Sanahin Monastery (btw, just use those names in Wikipedia in you'll read a lot)
a77 + Zeiss 2/24


a rural shot


a 5th century church wall (yes! 5th century)


More to come...

It's amazing they've stood the test of time, especially through earthquakes that must have happened, great stuff Doc.
Greg

Those look like beautiful places to visit Doc. I like the BW pillar shot the most.

That CZ24/2 seems like a great lens btw!

Mark

Very nice photos, Doc! Are these near home for you?

Great set Doc!hiccup!

Sury

Fascinating pictures Doc - I especially like the Khachkar - amazing detail in the carving - and interesting to see all of the green growing out of the roof in some pictures.

Thank you all. Henry, it's about 140 km from me.

Harichavank Monastery 8-13th century
A chapel separated from the main land after severe earthquakes, yet standing still
a77 + ZA 2/24


Inside Holy Mother of God Church, at Harichavank Monastery

Nice shots Doc. The building in the first looks very precarious - can't believe its still standing

B&W pillars. A special shot indeed.
Nice set.

That last shot is great too. Nice contrast between light!

Mark

I’m always impressed with early period masonry and how laboriously they fitted those stones together with great precision and skill. I wouldn’t be surprised though that some buildings had been shaken too pieces by various tremors and earthquakes during the last one thousand five hundred years or so and then the stone used in a rebuilding project. Not the monuments with stonework that’s still fitted together with sharp edges and flat faces of course but stones in a building that have the appearance of having been in a tumbler and now have chipped and rounded edges. It’s good to see that some have survived almost intact, apart from some human damage/vandalism.
An enjoyable series Doc I see that lots of historic Khachkars are scattered throughout occupied Armenian territory, but those Khachkars are not being looked after by the occupiers (Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran for example) and are being vandalised and destroyed, maybe they don’t like being reminded by the inconvenient evidence remaining in plain view, evidence that proves the area doesn’t belong to them.
Greg

Hi Dr. Harout,

I like the interior shots better I think. Well done on the 'unshaky' hand-held photo of the arcade of coloumns. I see many interlocking stones with an 'L' shape which are used almost in every other layer of rocks to 'lock' the masonry work. The same applies for the stones on the floor. These locks must have worked nicely to stand the pressures and stresses exerted by an earthquake, hence the monuments still being intact.


Hi Greg,

I try to keep any political aspect of views out of my messages in a forum related to photography and I certainly don't ever wish to sound 'biased' on any matter related to thousands' years of history but Asia Minor, present Turkey, was the center of many states rising and declining, dating from Pagan times before Christ or any other Monotheist belief. The Khachkar stones which are also called 'Hackar' in Turkish mean 'stone with the cross' or sometimes with the depiction of a certain important saint carved on the sides of the stone.
The ones we see in this thread date back to 5th Century when the Asia Minor/Turkey was occupied by the Roman Empire and many invading/crusading state-driven armed forces raided this piece of land for strategic reasons. Warship was almost never amiss on this land since the earliest times, and whichever forces prevailed or reigned temporarily, the first thing they did was pull down the present masonry and use the stones for their own state or provincial civilian or religious structures.

I've travelled to many parts of Turkey, Europe and the neighbouring Eastern countries to learn and see the cultural heritages of these lands, to know enough that there's no region that solely accomodates the cultural heritages of the present-day cultures. Urartus, Seljucks, Romans, Persians, Armenians, Greek and many more small and large groups were the natural part of the population on this land in the 5th Century.

Turkey houses cultural and religious heritages dating back to prehistoric times. Turn any stone or dig any soil deep enough one's bound to be amazed at what one may discover about the humans that lived on this soil.
Vandalism, in the shape of tomb-raiding or selling off of the findings to 'fortune hunters' is almost unstoppable anywhere. State-driven vandalism is not an offender of the Armenian-related architectural remains only. One really should not be biased... The many unique Ottoman architectural structures that are in Saudi Arabia or in the Balkans are/were targets of the state-driven 'wipe-outs'. Ottoman tomb stones and structures are raided almost daily still and are damaged irrecoverably...

We have really, really many cultural, architectural heritages to try and protect in Turkey..... But to say or imply that present-day Turkey is actually occupying Armenian land just by looking at 5th Century 'Hackars's dipersion in the region is biased and unfair to all the states and empires that once prevailed in the same historical period as well as 5th century's Armenia.
Then, the present, modern-day borders and treaties would have no meaning and 'we shoud hand the Asia Minor and the Armenian lands to the Roman Empire or the Byzantine Empire's people by seeking them out wherever they may be living today...

All that said, a huge majority like myself admire and visit the many chapels and historical remains of the Armenian origin and respect the art inscribed on these hard stones. I certainly hope our heritages that are outside our borders in the present-day world map receive the same respect I and my people feel for theirs.


Thanks for sharing your photos Dr. Harout. I never saw Armenia but these 5th century structures and icons are great inspiration to plan a visit someday.

Yildiz