The Foreign Service Journal, November 2010

sive concrete culverts built to divert mountain runoff so trains and rail won’t be swept into the river. We pass decrepit villages every few miles, with sheep and children scam- pering about, until thick smog sud- denly fills the valley and obliterates the stunning views. The rural scenery also begins to disappear, replaced by huge monoliths of an industrial zone at the approach to an old Soviet mining town. The smog soon disappears, and clear air reveals a colossal smokestack belch- ing thick fumes. Alaverdi is a dreary town in the middle of one of the most beautiful gorges imaginable. The road passes under a gondola that runs between it and the top of a sheer 500-foot cliff, where, my driver remarks, the other half of the town is spread out atop a mesa. Then the road returns to a pris- tine valley, free of smog due to the fa- vorable wind direction, and a fork in the river. We soon crossed the Debek and began climbing steeply above the Pambek River. The next town of any significance is Vanadzor, the third-largest city in Ar- menia. Partially leveled by a 1988 earthquake that killed 45,000, it has mostly recovered, with much of its in- frastructure, such as a smoking chem- ical plant, hard at work. The road cuts through a vibrant city of markets and bustling school kids, then climbs away from the Pambek toward gently round- ed mountains covered in snow. Atop the pass, the extremely long Sevan-Dilijan tunnel, hewn from the rock, is completely dark inside except for our headlights. But the tunnel’s exit frames staggering vistas of snowy alpine meadows, hemmed by the thick juniper forests of Dilijan National Park. Further on, Lake Sevan appears, a massive body of fresh water rimmed by snowy mountains, volcanoes and an- cient churches atop rocky precipices. Seventy-eight kilometers long and 56 wide, Lake Sevan is one of the largest high-altitude lakes in the world, stand- ing at 6,600 feet. Just outside the re- sort town of Sevan on its northwest shore, the Sevanavank Church (found- ed in 874) rises on an outcrop with sweeping views of the awe-inspiring geography. Approaching Yerevan Leaving the lake, the road heads south across bleak terrain surrounded by numerous volcanoes that seem to prepare the traveler for one of the great sights on the planet. Snow-cap- ped Mount Ararat (16,854 feet) and Lesser Ararat (12,782 feet) dominate the landscape 100 kilometers ahead across the border in Turkey. The road then plunges down to dusty Yerevan, where I made a secure delivery of classified pouches to the embassy. Founded along the banks of the Hrazdan River in 782 B.C. by King Ar- gishti I, and named after the Erebuni fortress he built, Yerevan is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Erebuni’s strategic position along the caravan routes between Eu- rope and India made it wealthy, but it was also a site of continual conflict. The area acted as a buffer between the Greek and Roman world and that of the Arabs and Persians. During the reign of King Tigran the Great (95-55 B.C.), Armenia stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to Tbilisi in the north. Tigran based his empire on Hellenic culture as a counter to the Persians who had historically occupied the region. By 30 B.C., however, Ar- menia had been conquered by Rome. Armenia accepted Christianity as its state religion in 301 A.D. King Tiri- dates III (238-314) is credited with being the first sovereign to Christianize his kingdom, predating the conversion to Christianity of Constantine and the Roman Empire (312). According to legend, the Armenian Apostolic church was established by two of Jesus’ 12 apostles, Thaddaeus and Bartholomew, who preached in Arme- nia from 40 to 60. Armenia was even- tually absorbed into the Byzantine Empire where it remained until 653, when the Byzantines ceded the area to the Arabs, claiming it was too difficult to rule. After countless invasions from the 52 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 0 Georgia reached its peak in 1204 when Constantinople fell, making it the strongest Christian state in the Middle East. Snow-capped Mount Ararat and Lesser Ararat dominate the landscape across the border in Turkey. Photo courtesy of www.planetware.com