45th meridian (European regional academy)

European regional academy journal, department of tourism.

Ascension

In 1844 Kh. Abovyan and a famous Austrian geologist H. V. Abikh tried to reach Masis mountain summit but they had to cancel their climbing because of bad weather conditions. In 1845 academician Abikh reached the summit, but without Abovyan. English naturalist Seymour with Abovyan subdued the mountain from the side of Sardar Bulagh. In 1850 a famous expedition leaded by Colonel I. I. Hodzko ascended the summit of Ararat. After that ascensions were made almost once ten years: Stuart 1856, Brice 1876, Baker 1878, Markov 1888, Pastukhov and Linch 1893 and at last pedagogue A. Mkhitaryan in 1903.

Travel and travellers

In 1829 A. S. Pushkin on the way from Moscow to Erzrum (5200 km. in general he passed 34000 km during 38 years of his life) visited Armenia. In the future he published his road notes in the book called «Travel to Arzrum».

What the rocks tell

The rockiest part of Zangezur starts from the road, leading from Goris to Kapan, which crosses the Valley of Vorotan River and reaches the slopes of Bargushat mountain chain. The monuments of nature near Goris are wonderful. Sharp rocks, stone pyramids create kinda a wood made of stone. These wonders of nature are volcanic rocks. These rocks can be seen on the way to Khndzoresk. Old Khndzoresk is made of huge stones. They look like pyramids of stone. People used to live in those stones. Inhabitants left them in 1950s. There are a lot of these kinds of rocks around. You can also meet them in Goris. Some windows and doors were 4-5 meters above the ground and they had a plaited ladder near.

Material provided by dean of tourism department

K. Sarafyan