Visited October 2018

Roughly an hour north of the capital Yerevan is Armenia’s largest body of water, Lake Sevan. Located at nearly 2000m in elevation, it is one of the highest Alpine lakes in the world. Naturally, my friends and I decided to go see it. Getting there is fairly easy. Most people usually take a public marshrutka (minibus) from Yerevan for 700 dram ($1.50), but we decided to come down from Tbilisi, which just involved taking the bus to Yerevan and getting off early. Together, we stayed at a guesthouse in the main town, also called Sevan. The town itself wasn’t much, but the surrounding scenery was really beautiful. Plus the guesthouse was nice and dinner in town was very, very cheap.

We explored a little and then went out to see the ancient monastery on the shore of the lake. The monastery used to be located on an island, but during the Soviet times, Stalin ordered a land bridge to be built. Therefore, it is now on a peninsula. On the downside, it took away a bit of the awe surrounding it, but on the bright side, we didn’t have to take a boat to get there. Although it was pretty reminiscent of most other Armenian monasteries, the views of the surrounding lake were incredible. The building was situated up atop a hill, and from there, you could see out across the water to the mountains on the horizon. I definitely recommend going, and although I could probably ramble on for a bit more about it, I’ll spare you readers for now and just show pictures. Please Enjoy.