Tatev Monastery

Tatev stands on the lip of a basalt plateau in Syunik, in the far south-east of Armenia, where the ground falls away almost vertically into the gorge of the Vorotan River. Seen from the opposite rim, the monastery looks like a continuation of the cliff: a walled enclosure of grey stone, domes and roofs pressed against the edge, with forested slopes and the river far below. The place became the seat of the bishops of Syunik in the 9th century, and its main church, dedicated to Saints Paul and Peter, was built between 895 and 906 under Bishop Hovhannes with the support of the local prince Ashot. Its interior was painted in 930, and fragments of the frescoes — Christ with the apostles, the Last Judgment, the Nativity — survive on the walls.

Around this church the complex grew over a thousand years: the church of Saint Gregory, the small church of the Holy Mother of God of 1087, 14th-century fortifications on three sides, and, in the 17th and 18th centuries, a ring of monks' cells, refectory, bakery, storerooms and classrooms along the walls. In the courtyard stands the Gavazan, a slim column about 8 m high, crowned by a carved cross-stone and dating from 906. It was built so that it can sway without falling, and it is one of the small marvels that visitors come to find.

Tatev's heyday came between 1390 and 1434, when it was home to a university, one of the leading centres of learning in medieval Armenia. Under Hovhan Vorotnetsi and then his pupil Grigor Tatevatsi, monks studied scripture, philosophy, manuscript illumination and music here. An earthquake in 1931 brought down the dome of the main church and the bell tower; the complex has been restored since. Since 2010 the monastery has been reached by the Wings of Tatev, a cable car of about 5.7 km across the Vorotan gorge that set a Guinness record as the longest non-stop double-track cableway; the cabin passes some 320 m above the river, and the view of the monastery on its ledge during the approach is the finest there is.

Getting there

The nearest town is Goris, about 17 km away as the crow flies. The Wings of Tatev cable car runs from the village of Halidzor to the village of Tatev beside the monastery; a winding road also climbs up from the gorge. The nearest airport by distance is Lachin International (LHL), about 57 km away across the border in Azerbaijan; the practical gateway is Yerevan's Zvartnots International Airport (EVN), about 180 km in a straight line and some 280 km by road.