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Armenia is located in the South Caucasus, between Europe and Asia, and is one of the world’s oldest cultural regions. In AD 301, it became the first country to adopt Christianity as a state religion, a fact still reflected in hundreds of monasteries and churches, several of them UNESCO-listed. Nearly 90 percent of the country consists of highland terrain, with mountain passes rising above 2,000 meters and Lake Sevan standing out as one of the largest high-altitude lakes in Eurasia. Despite its compact size, Armenia offers striking geographic diversity, short travel distances, and very limited mass tourism. Visiting the country allows for direct access to history, landscapes, and everyday life without the distractions of overdeveloped travel infrastructure.
In May 2023, I spent nine days traveling through Armenia, a country that reveals its depth quickly but never feels rushed. I began in Yerevan, where wide boulevards, pink tuff stone, and a strong Soviet-era urban layout define the cityscape. Yerevan feels open and lived-in, with cafés, markets, and parks forming the rhythm of daily life. Food plays a central role here, from grilled meats and fresh herbs to flatbread baked throughout the day, making the city an easy place to settle into.
From the capital, I explored some of Armenia’s most characteristic sites. The Garni Temple, built in the 1st century AD, stands as a reminder of Armenia’s pre-Christian past, while the nearby Symphony of Stones shows how dramatic the landscape can be even on short day trips. I then continued north to Lake Sevan, one of the largest high-altitude lakes in Eurasia, where I tried locally smoked fish by the shore and experienced a quieter, slower side of the country.
Armenia’s short distances make it easy to combine cities, nature, and history in a single trip, yet each stop adds another layer. This page explores those layers in more detail, from practical travel insights to places worth lingering at, and shows why Armenia rewards anyone willing to look a bit closer.
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