Skhtorashen and Amaras, 24 June 2011

The huge planar tree of S'khtorashen. The sign says: Platan chinar - 2,000 years; Hollow of tree is 44 square meters; Capacity of tree is 27 meters; Height of tree is 54 meters; Area covered by drancert of tree is 1,400 square meters; Saved (protected) by state



S'khtorashen is a popular and wonderful picnic spot.

Landscape with mulberry trees

Grandma is taking care of her grandson and at the same time cutting hay in her mulberry orchard

St. Gregory the Illuminator founded a church in what was to become Amaras Monastery at the start of the 4th century.
The monastery was plundered in the 13th century by the Mongols, destroyed in 1387 during Tamerlane's invasion, and demolished again in the 16th century. It underwent radical restructuring in the second quarter of the 17th century when the surviving defensive walls were constructed. Amaras was later abandoned, and in the first half of the 19th century the monastery served as a frontier fortress for Russian imperial troops.

Also Amaras is the perfect spot for a picnic

The landscape around Tigranakert. Tigranakert is an Armenian city dating back to the Hellenistic period. It is one of several former cities in the Armenian plateau with the same name, named in honour of the Armenian king Tigranes the Great.

From the excavations of Tigranakert

Hoopoe, Upupa epops, Hærfugl

Hoopoe, Upupa epops, Hærfugl

Agdam, formerly a city of 100.000 inhabitants but now a totally deserted ghost town is a few kilometers south from Stepanakert.
The former inhabitants of Agdam deserted city in 1993, under the threat of Armenian military operations. Taking away with them furniture and personal belongings.
Displaced, those thousands Azerbaijai is living in camps, real closed “cities”, in the region of Barda and Sumgaït.

Old Muslim graveyard just next to the road.

All over Nagorno Karabakh you will find signs of the war nearly 20 years ago.