Wednesday, June 3, 2009
This morning I woke up and said to myself, “Oh no! It’s the last full day in Armenia!” Then I thought about it a little and said “It’s o.k. – I’m going to see my friends and family in America.” Now I am going to tell you what I saw and learned today.
This morning we first drove by the Krikor Lousavorich church, which was built in 2001, celebrating 1700 years of Armenians adopting Christianity. It’s the biggest cathedral in Armenia.
We next went to the Sasountsi David statue. There is a secret that says the horse’s tail in the statue is two legs resembling the trousers the Turks used to wear. There is a train station building behind the statue which has an emblem at the top that contains Mt. Ararat, wheat, and the Soviet Armenian Coat of Arms.
Our next stop was at the Erepouni Fortress which had a great view of Mt. Ararat. In 782 BC, Arkishti the 1st founded this fortress. Erepouni means “victory” because there was a victory against the tribes of Van and Biayna. There is a legend that says when Noah came out of his ark from Armenia, he saw all of the land which was Yerevadz (which means “appeared”). There are Kinepour descriptions (carved letters) on the temples of fire. The region is in Nairi which means country of rivers.
Next we went to the Erepouni Museum. The museum was built in 1968 to celebrate the 1750th anniversary of Yerevan. Here we saw one of the most important artifacts of Yerevan: the birth certificate of Yerevan carved in stone. After a large period of time, Erepouni became Yerevan. Douf stone was used for making pipes and bowls. The number of dots on the jars of liquid represented how much liquid was in a jar. The main three colors used in clothing were red, blue, and the color of apricot: the colors of the Armenian flag. The dead remains of important men were placed in an urn. Warriors put bells on their chariots to represent help from the gods. During this period (3,000 years ago), the value of money depended upon the size of the coin, and how much silver or gold there was in the coin. This year is the 2791st anniversary of Yerevan.
We also saw Vartan Mamigonian’s statue among many others, such as Yegishe Charens, Michael Nalbandian, and Hovaness Ayvazian. We also passed by Yerevan’s main university and Mardiros Sarian’s (famous painter) house museum.
Finally we went to Hovaness Toumanian’s house museum. Toumanian had 10 kids (4 boys, 6 girls). At his dinner table, he had a special chair. He bought nearly 10,000 books: 2,000 of those books were borrowed by others and were never returned. On the door in his study, his sign says “Please do not smoke and do not ask books.” His heart was buried in a chapel in his hometown of Lori. Since he died when he was 54, his mansion has 54 steps.
We had dinner at the Kilikia Restaurant. It was so much fun. The food was great and we all danced together.
This truthfully was the best field trip I ever had and probably will ever have. We are all looking forward to being back at school to see everyone on Friday!
By Jonathan Orchanian