Tegher church is another unique place on the Mount Aragats, in Aragatsotn marz. This beautiful creation of the medieval Armenian architecture is located in Tegher village on the southern slope of Aragats at the altitude of 1650 meters above the sea level.
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.
May 14, 2009
Awesome place! Recommend to everybody
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