As mentioned earlier – so is no such thing, as a day without a church or monastery for tourist in Armenia … and as the morning had only covered a temple and the ruins of a church, we really had to catch up now … and the choice for the afternoon surely did not disappoint.

It took us less than 15 minutes, to make it from our lunch place to Geghard Monastery (Գեղարդի վանք).

The monastery goes back to the forth century (with the main church built in the early 13th century) and – as before – located in a canyon.

The monastery originally got started in a cave, however had then been destroyed in the 9th century, when an Arabian caliph was coming through; earthquakes did not help too much  either. It was only in the 13th century, when a new construction was started – the main church dates back to 1215. Over time the church was extended, a gavit (kind of anteroom in front of the main church room) was added. Some of the new structures were actually even carved out of mountainside, including a number of churches, as well as part of the gavit of the main church.

To me Geghard was indeed the highlight, when it comes to monasteries on this trip – the atmosphere here was just special – especially in the structures hewn out of the rock. I guess, the fact, that we (nearly) did run into a service in the main church, as well as the concert in the Upper Jhamatun did just add to that experience.