One of the researches of the group of scientists on the Aragats Cosmic Ray Observatory was the ANI experiment (Ani is one of the ancient Armenian capitals, now located on the territory of Turkey).  This world biggest experiment of detection of ultra-high energy cosmic rays was started before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, after the collapse the work was officially stopped. However, Armenian scientists go on researching on various aspects of cosmic rays, hoping to resume the ANI experiment.

The film is in 7 short parts!

 

About 11,000 years ago the ice shield of the last Ice Age covering the Armenian mountains started to melt. The new stage of the formation of Armenian relief began. The passing glacier formed a lot of cirques (an amphitheater-like valleys) on its way, part of which became tarns. A tarn is a mountain lake or pool formed in a cirque by waters of a melting glacier and snow that in a cold climate does not evaporate but accumulates and melts.

Tarn lakes can be found on Zangezur, Gegham, Vardenis and other mountain ridges of Armenia. But the most famous of them is Qarilich lake. Qarilich or Qari lich means stone lake. According to ancient popular beliefs the lake is fed by stone rivers, called kurums.

Qarilich is located on the Aragats mountain on the altitude of 3200 meters. The average temperature of the warmest month of August is about +10 C here. When it’s +40 C down in Yerevan, it’s about +10 on the Qarilich and about +0 on the Aragats summit. Qarilich’s surface is only 0,12 sq.km and depth is maximum 8 meters. It’s not a big but very picturesque lake. 

Qarilich is a transfer point on the way to the Aragats’ peaks. Going up the Aragats’ slope from the Qarilich, you can reach the Southern peak (the easiest), the Western peak and the shoulder. The least is the most convenient and safe way to descend to the crater and then climb the Northern peak of Aragats.

Institute of Physics of Cosmic Rays is situated on the bank of Qarilich lake. Cosmic Ray research at high altitude stations on Mt. Aragats, Armenia, was founded by famous Armenian physicists, Alikhanyan brothers, in 1943. Till now a group of scientists live on the station, measure cosmic rays and suns emissions.

Photo by Suren Manvelyan [see full size]

Unfortunately, YouTube has decreased the quality of images (((.
The better quality you can find on the site of the travel agency, that organizes trips to Aragats

The Northern pick of Aragats is the highest point not only of Aragats but of the entire present-day Armenia! Altitude of the pick is 4091 meter above the sea level.

To climb the top one must have a good physical fit and especially strong lungs. Four thousand meters is not the just half of Everest, where local people live on altitude of 5000 meters, but is still high enough to feel lack of oxygen when moving up.

Special energy of Aragats is worth mentioning here. Aragats is a surprisingly energetic mountain. Although the highest in Armenia, for me it was the easiest to climb from the physical point of view. It is feeding you with a live energy, and you can step from one stone on another and other and other, climbing higher and higher, trying not to lose your measured pace and breathing… But 4 thousands are 4 thousands, and I couldn’t help stopping from time to time and drawing several deep breaths of the mountain air.

As mentioned earlier, the easiest pick of Aragats is its Southern pick. Though it requires a good physical fit to climb it, anybody can do it. For conquering the Northern pick some simple climbing equipment is a must: in summer you must have ropes, in winter you will not go far without crampons and axes.

What you will definitely need in any case is a good guide!

This is a half desolate village, whose inhabitants ascend here only for the warm period of the year, and descend to their urban homes near Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, in winter. There are just a couple of dozens of houses here, a destroyed chapel and… a unique church Surb Maryam Astvatsatsin, which means St. Mary.

This is a church of a sober cupola hall, build from dark-grey basalt in 1213 with a gavit, vestibule, built in 1221, and two chapels erected on its roof. It is a very beautiful complex, unlike any other by its architecture. The complex was built at the behest of Mamakhatun, wife of Prince Vache Vachutian, and the architect, according to an inscription on a column of the gavit, was the priest Aghbayrik.  

A charming view has the church in the night.

Near the church, on the other side of the river gorge one can see a huge radio-telescope, the biggest telescope of this kind in the former Soviet Union. By the telescope there is a huge mirror plate, an unfinished solar power station. 

In the western part of the village one can find the remains of a Bronze Age cyclopean fort. A secret passage to the nearest water source was found by the fort.

Nature here is very beautiful! The Ararat Valley dominated by the Ararat is spread out before the eyes in the south and Ara Mount rests peacefully in the east. But there’s one more thing, which is worth visiting this place – stars above the Aragats… In the clear night it seems like stretching your arm you will inevitably touch the stars.

This fortress was a family estate of Pahlavuni dukes. Supposedely the castle was built in the VII^th century by the Kamsarakans, an Armenian noble family. Later the castle passed into the hands of a celebrated Armenian commander Vaghram Pahlavuni. Still later Bagratuni brothers, Armenia rulers of tha time, bought Amberd from Pahlavuni and made it the main advanced post fortress of their kingdom. The fortress fell in the XIII^th century under attack of the Mongols, who burnt everything that could burn and destroyed many stone structures.

The fortress was errected on the cape in the junction point of two rivers. Amberd’s impregnable walls are assembled of big basalt blocks. Their only decoration were plates of highly glazed pottery, which were built into the stones under the merlons of the turrets. According to the legend these plates were striking the evil eye of a stranger with their glitter.  

The water supply was well considered and reliably planned. Water was coming from mountain springs upper in the mountains. There are water collection systems with dams that were accumulating water of melting snows and supplied the fortress with it. In case of siege the fortress had two big water reservoirs. And in case of emergency the fortress inhabitants could use a secret underground passage that leads to the Amberd river.

In 1929 archaeologists discovered a bathhouse in the Amberd castle. It consisted of two medium-size rooms. Hot air was arriving to a small room under the stone plates to warm the walls, and when cooled, going out by clay tubes. One of the bathrooms had a water reservoir – a prototype of a stone bath, where hot and cold water was arriving by separate tubes from an external water supply system.

In 1026 by order of the celebrated Armenian commander Vaghram Pahlavuni one of the most refined Armenian churches was built near the castle.

Excavations discovered many artefacts, brought to Armenia from many other countries, bith Western and Eastern. Bronze lamps, incense-burners, mortars, wrecks of earthenware,  toilet bottles, expensive bowls, decorated dishes and jugs.

This is one of the Armenian legends about Aragats, the main mountain of the modern Armenia.

Aragats Mount is the 4^th highest pick of the Armenian Highland and the highest pick of the modern Armenia. Aragats is an extinct volcano, one of the ancient in the world. It has 4 picks and a large crater, resulted from a big explosion by its eruption in prehistoric times. Aragats’ 4 picks are like petals of a quaterfoil. They stately rise above the deep crater, one higher than another. The highest pick, called “Northern”, is 4091 meters above the sea level.  

The easiest pick is the “Southern” (on the photo). Anybody, but physically strong person, can climb it. The hardest one is obviously the “Northern“. One must have good lungs not to run out of breath, some simple climbing equipment and a guide.

The local guide is essential, since you first need to go down to the crater and then go up to the pick. The picks have very steep edges and their slopes are loose, due to volcanic origin of the rocks. This is why you must be guided by an experienced person, who knows the ways.

If you visit Armenia, you should definitely see this majestic mountain with breath-taking view on the crater!

*Masis is the Armenian name for Ararat