This blog is about Armenia, its nature, people, culture, unique historical and cultural monuments, its mountains, lakes and churches, its great history and inimitable beauty – in short, everything that can be useful and interesting to know about Armenia when visiting this country.
Armenia is a very small country. One can cross it from one end to the other along the longest trajectory, from north-west to south-east, just in 6 hours.
Nevertheless, this land is very diverse.
A small area of about 30,000 km2, which is the area of the modern Armenia, contains many various climatic zones. There are semideserts, halophytic and other desert areas, cereals, feather grass and motley grass steppes, meadows, subalpine and alpine meadows, deciduous forests and rocky mountains.
Wildlife of Armenia includes its flora and fauna and their natural habitats.
Flora of Armenia numbers around 3,200 species, 1,600 of which are endemics (i.e. plants not found elsewhere in the world), many of them are in the Red List! By the way, the Ararat valley is the place of origin of wheat and a number of other cultivated cereals! Thus, Armenia can give many surprises to botanists and amateur botanists.
Fauna of Armenia is just the same diverse. Many animal species, dwelling in Armenia, are typical only for the Armenian highlands. Even leopards, Caucasian or also called Persian leopards, can be found here!
Armenia is far not a rich land. There’s no gold, no oil, no gas. All it has is stones! And stones are perhaps one of its main treasures. And it’s not even about precious or semiprecious stones, no, it’s about common boulders and fine stones that have no monetary value, but the value of beauty. These boulders and fine stones in valleys and foothills, volcanic rock columns and flat stone tiles on Aragats are the most incredible possessions of Armenia! It’s hard to imagine how various can stones be, and how much motionless beauty, but warmth and vital energy they have. It’s funny that stone usually personify a cold, indifferent, senseless and heartless something. But it only seems that way!
People who live here, who, with great effort, plow, cultivate, sow and irrigate stowns to survive gained great endurance and wisdom.
“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” (William Saroyan)
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