“Armenia 🇦🇲 ~Khndzoresk Village, Churches and Cave Dwellings”

• April 15, 2021
• By Pen
• 2 Comments

Disappointed, but not defeated, after not being able to teach the petroglyphs, we traveled from the Ughtaser Mountain area and made our way to the best preserved cave homes in Armenia. We arrived at a deserted parking area, and we all began our descent down; 400 steps. With knees like Daryl and I have, going down and coming up steep inclines is not easy. Once we reached the bottom, where a huge suspension bridge would take us across the deep canyon, we met an local elder who showed us the museum and spoke of the history.      (no English, but no worries). This elder, in fact, had lived in the village, before it was abandoned.

We crossed the bridge and toured some cave homes. It all reminded us of Cappadocia in Turkey, but on a smaller scale. Dug into volcanic sandstone on the slopes of Khor Dzor (Deep Gorge), the Village of Old Khndzoresk was inhabited as far back as the 13th century. By the late 19th century, the town was the largest in eastern Armenia. But, after being devastated by the 1931 earthquake, it was abandoned (save for a brief stint during the Karabakh War when caves were used as shelter). Now Old Khndzoresk is a ghost town of caves and 17th-centurychurches.

By the time we were done exploring the cave villages, Daryl and I both hit the wall at the same time. The last several days of go, go, go, caught up with us. We chose to not hike back up the mountain and instead got a ride from the elder who ran a taxi. We met our younger friends at the top, as they hiked back up, and didn’t break a sweat!