Look what I've got a few days ago as an official from Russia!! A new UNESCO site from.... Armenia! How cool is this? It was a great surprise.
The monastery of Geghard is located in the Kotayk province of Armenia, being partially carved out of the adjacent mountain. It is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.
Photo by Tigran Mangasaryan
The Geghard complex is an exceptionally complete and well-preserved example
of a medieval Armenian monastic foundation in a remote area of great natural
beauty at the head of the Azat valley, surrounded by towering cliffs. It
contains a number of churches and tombs, most of them cut into the rock, which
illustrate the very peak of Armenian medieval architecture and decorative art,
with many innovatory features that had a profound influence on subsequent
developments in the region. It was founded in the 4th century, according to
tradition by St Gregory the Illuminator. The first monastery was destroyed by
Arabs in the 9th century, but it was flourishing again by the 13th century. The
monastery was famous because of the relics that it housed, the most celebrated
the spear that wounded Christ on the Cross. Relics of the Apostles Andrew and
John were donated in the 12th century and pious visitors made numerous grants of
land, money, manuscripts and so on over the succeeding centuries. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/960
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