Yeghegis

Yeghegis is a small village with an unusual concentration of medieval building: four churches within a few hundred metres, including Zorats Church, which has an open sanctuary designed so that mounted men could be blessed before setting out. Across the river is a Jewish cemetery of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, rediscovered and excavated in the 1990s, with headstones carrying Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions. It is the clearest surviving trace of a medieval Jewish community in Armenia.

What you actually see

• Zorats Church - a fourteenth-century church with an open-air sanctuary for blessing horsemen.
• The other churches - three more medieval buildings within the village.
• The Jewish cemetery - thirteenth and fourteenth-century headstones with Hebrew inscriptions.
• The valley - the Yeghegis river running between steep slopes.

When to go

May to October is the season. The cemetery is across a footbridge and is easiest in dry weather. Snow closes the upper valley in winter.

Honest expectations

Churches are often locked and the keyholder has to be found in the village. The cemetery is a short walk over the river with no signage. There are no facilities in the village.

Nearby

Smbataberd and Tsakhats Kar are above the village, and Yeghegnadzor is south.