The Journey To Geghard; The Echoes of Prayer

We’ve all heard that life is about the journey and not so much the destination, but you can encounter some pretty fantastic destinations along the way!  To make the journey to Armenia more interesting, I rented a car and we are driving all over the country.  Many fellow travellers can’t believe that we are doing this, even Armenians think we are a bit crazy to drive here, but I love an adventure!  However the journey is sometimes made better if you have a little technological help, so we also rented a GPS with English speaking voice instructions.  The GPS was great! Roads not so great in some parts!  The roads can be worse than in Haiti in some places, but they have nice four lane highways here, too.   You have to be very careful though because you never knew when a major pothole  or cow or pig will appear in the middle of the road. . Case has been a great navigator helping me look out for the obstructions in the road.

Garni Temple--note Case on far right

We drove 25 km from Yerevan to Garni, the site of an old Hellenistic-style temple built in the first century.  The temple, dedicated to the Sun God and was built because King Trdat I became a political vassal and ally of the Emperor Nero and the Roman Empire. The Hellenistic influence in Armenia was strong, but still Armenia has its own strong Middle Eastern pre-Christian culture.  The temple is a jewel sitting on a bluff high above the Azat River Gorge. After we toured the temple, which is in remarkable condition for being built around 60 ad, we hiked a thrilling and scenic trail below it in a river gorge for a few kilometers. The views of the heights around us (which we climbed twice during our walk--probably a 1500-1800 ft. change in elevation) were phenomenal and we encountered some amazing rock formations that resembled tall, narrow, hexagonal needles. My renaissance man, Case, studied something very similar to these in his excellent geology classes at Sewanee.  We will have to show pictures to Bran Potter upon return to Sewanee. 

Azat River Gorge--we hiked down and up and back!

After our hike we had  a late lunch at Garni Tavern. Armenian food is basically grilled meats and kabobs, fresh salads, yogurts, bread and fruit.  A main meat dish is barbecued meats-- khorahvats—grilled meat with wonderful fresh tomato and onion and spices sauce, along with parsley and onions all over the plate and of course, served with bread. We had pork and chicken--it was fabulous. Served with bread, two kinds: lavash---chewy long strips that you can roll the food up in, and then a sliced bread baked in a pan that was wonderful, too. We started our meal with a wonderful salad of fresh cucumbers, parsley, other herbs, light vinegar, and tomatoes---I think the best tomatoes I have ever had, grown in this hot, hot sunshine and volcanic soil. We are especially liking the Armenian beer that costs about $1.50 a pop! Every meal ends with surrch--very strong Armenian coffee and usually served with sugar, their version of espresso, but not quite as strong and a tad bit larger serving.

Agroup of Armenian doctors from Los Angeles were also at the Garni Tavern at the next table and we had an interestingconversationwith these mostly young folks in their early 30's. These kids, or young adults (!) were great to share stories with. They live near Sally in Beverly Hills and a few are going to wander into Petite Bateau upon return to the States and tell Sally they met her father and brother in Armenia.  Many Diaspora Armenians come to Armenian every couple of years. These Doctors come regularly for exchange of information to help better the practice of medicine here, but they also say that the Armenians are developing procedures and medicines that we don’t have in the United States and so they have much to learn, too.   Sounds familiar!

Approaching Geghard Monastery

Afterwards, we drove about 10 km to the 11^th century Geghard Monastery.   Case and I agree this is one of the most interesting places we have ever seen. The walls are cut into the side of the gorge, but what is most remarkable is that the monks built their cells (living quarters) and several churches into the surrounding rock of the slopes around the early-13th century. According to Case, the rock is volcanic tuff (which is fine grained volcanic ash with larger crystallized debris mixed in occasionally), so it's easier to cut through than other rock materials.  Walking through them surrounded by only darkness and the prayer candles lit by other visitors and pilgrims was a powerful experience. There is one church cut completely out of rock, including its symmetrically pleasing arches and massive decorated columns, with a special design that gives a remarkable acoustic effect. I can only imagine listening to the echo of monastic chants during worship when this place was at its height--an experience that would surely be intensified by the piety and order and purpose of the monks performing the rites of service.

A portion of the lance that pierced Christ
in his passion on Golgotha. 

Geghard has been important to the Armenian Christians since the 4^th century.  There were actually monastic caves first carved here then.   Longinas, who is the Roman Centurion who thrust the sword in Jesus' side out of mercy to quicken his death, became one of Christ’s followers a Golgotha because Jesus' blood that flowed from the spear lancing cured a terrible eye disease. He became an apostle and came through Armenia after the main Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew first brought the faith to the Armenian people about a decade after Christ’s death and resurrection.  Longinas gave the top portion of the  lance to the Armenians and they revered it at Gegherd beginning in the 4th century when this became one of the most important monasteries in Armania.  Geghard is actually the Armanian word for lance or spear.  The holy relic was moved to Etchmiadzin into the Treasury of Mayr Tacher in the early 20th century. We saw it when on our tour of Etchmiadzin.

The church at Geghard that was cut of the stone mountain

Geghard is a holy, thin place that still welcomes hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year.  Case said, "If we don't see anything else, this has made the trip!"   I’d  like to share Case’s description of Geghard, beautifully written in his journal:  The grounds of the monastery literally hang off the cliffs overlooking the Azat River Gorge, and from the rock walls monastic cells and several small churches have been cut out of the surrounding volcanic tuff in a 13th-century feat of engineering and architecture. The interiors of these rooms are dark save for prayer candles which have been lit by visitors and pilgrims alike, and one of the churches has been designed so that the acoustics produce a remarkable and authentically holy and mysterious reverberation of sound, almost a divine echo. It is one of the more fascinating and moving places I have ever been.  

 And I think I’ll just say, amen. 

 Pax