Thursday - Tatev

Breakfast just after 7 am. then off to Tatev monastery. We stopped near a tower where we had a view of the monastery across the valley. The coach would take us all the way down and back up the other side. The view was impressive looking down into the gorge. Below us was a bird of prey circling around catching thermals before it flew off down the valley.

We continued on to the monastery. There was an interesting earth quake tower which was said to shake a warning 5 minutes before the earth quake struck. The monastery was situated on a flat hilltop and surrounded on three sides by sheer cliffs. The cathedral was almost impregnable. The Royal families of Armenia archived their manuscripts and documents here for safe keeping.

Claire gave us some time off, and said those who wanted to walk down the road could, and the bus would pick them up in 15 minutes. Off Steve went, the bus picked up several people on the way down, Meg and Ken had not seen him. Steve made it to the bottom of the hair pin road and was in the process of buying a beer from the odd bar when the bus caught up with him. Hot and sweaty no one wanted him next to them on the bus.

On the way down, Steve saw several Armenians, and they were communicating across the valley, with each other with load shouts. The acoustics of the valley allowed this method of communication.

Looking down into the gorge, across the valley from Tatev, you can see the bird of prey thermalling		Long shot of Tatev across the valley. We had a trip down and back up lots of hair pin bends
Close up to the Tatev monastery from across the valley		Local bus travelling up to Tatev
Local bus travelling up to Tatev		Tower on the hill where we stopped before descending down and back up to Tatev
The earthquake tower, said to shake 5 minutes before the earth quake..		At Tatev, viewing the tower where we had stopped over and hour before
Andrew Bartram taking a photo of the tower,, notice the steep drop down to the valley		View down the valley
The cathedral building.		The cathedral building
.The bar at the bottom of the valley. No electricity, beer not very cold but cool. A welcome stop discovered by Steve.