Lori is located Armenia's northern border. Bounded on all sides by rugged mountains and cut by sheer gorges, Lori is a dramatically beautiful region, sparsely settled except for the valleys of the Pambak, Debed and Dzoraget rivers.
Lori is home to Haghpat and Kober monasteries -- two of Armenia's loveliest -- and a host of other important medieval monuments, to the spectacularly sited Lori Castle (Lori Berd), to a pleasing Arboretum in Gyulagarak, and to a range of stunning landscapes. Though lacking a major resort destination, Lori's importance as a transport corridor to Georgia has contributed to the development of a growing number of small hotels and restaurants on the main routes (text and photo from Rediscovering Armenia Guidebook).
Sanahin and Haghpat monasteries, located in Lori, are listed in UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Information on Vayots Dzor Region
Vayots Dzor is one of the most scenic and historically interesting regions of Armenia, centered on the watershed of the Arpa River and its tributaries before they flow SW into Nakhichevan to join the Arax river. Mountainous and sparsely populated, Vayots Dzor (by popular etymology "the Gorge of Woes") is crowded with medieval monasteries, forts, caves, and camping spots. The uplands have potential hiking/horseback/mountain bike tracks. There are trout in the streams, and wild sheep, bear (protected) and smaller game in the mountains. The marz capital is Yeghegnadzor, a 90 minute drive from Yerevan over the main N-S route. There are a series of very nice newly remodeled sanatoria and hotels in Jermuk.
The earliest historically recorded settlement in Vayots Dzor was at Moz, near Malishka, and there are scattered remains of Bronze and early Iron Age graveyards and "cyclopean" forts (built of large, unworked boulders, as if by Cyclopes) elsewhere. The region flourished most mightily in the 13th-14th centuries, when a series of gifted and pious local rulers managed to coexist with the Mongols and other passing empires. In 1604, the region was depopulated when Shah Abbas of Persia, fighting a series of fierce campaigns against the Ottomans in and over Armenia, forcibly relocated much of the Armenian community to Persia, both to strengthen his own domain economically and to leave scorched earth for the Turks. In 1828, with the Russian conquest, thousands of Armenians emigrated from Persia or Eastern Turkey to resettle the region. (From Rediscovering Armenia Guidebook).
Information on Yerevan
The territory of Yerevan was settled in the fourth millennium BC, fortified settlements from the Bronze Age include Shengavit, Tsitsernakaberd, Karmir Blur, Arin Berd, Karmir Berd and Berdadzor. Archaeological evidence indicates that an Urartian military fortress called Erebuni was founded in 782 BC by the orders of King Argishtis I at the site of current-day Yerevan, to serve as a fort and citadel guarding against attacks from the north Caucasus. Yerevan is thus one of the most ancient cities in the world. During the height of Urartian power, irrigation canals and an artificial reservoir were built on Yerevan's territory.
As a centre of Armenian culture, Yerevan is the site of Yerevan State University (1919), the Armenian Academy of Sciences, a historical museum, an opera house, a music conservatory and several technical institutes. The Matenadaran archives hold a rich collection of valuable ancient Armenian, Greek, Assyrian, Hebrew, Roman and Persian manuscripts. Yerevan has several large public libraries, a number of museums and theaters, botanical gardens and zoos. It is also at the heart of an extensive rail network and is a major trading centre for agricultural products. In addition, industries in the city produce metals, machine tools, electrical equipment, textiles and food products.
