Handpicked experience · Yerevan
Yerevan, Armenia
A monastery that lost its island when a Soviet scheme drained twenty metres off the lake, a forty-eight-kilometre tunnel dug to undo it, and an Olympic town at altitude.
A cable ride up towards a two-thousand-metre ridge
A headland church founded by a princess in the ninth century
Open time on the shore of a lake at nineteen hundred metres
Two contrasting stops in one run out of the capital
An eight-hour day from Yerevan to the mountain town of Tsaghkadzor and on to Lake Sevan, with a ropeway ride towards Mount Teghenis, time on the shore and a visit to the ninth-century monastery above the water.
Two stops with a drive between them, both at altitude and both cooler than the capital. The walking is short — the steps up to the monastery and whatever you choose to do at the top of the ropeway — and the rest of the day is spent looking at things. The ropeway ticket is bought at the station rather than included.
Sevanavank was built on an island. It is now on a peninsula, and you can walk to it, because the lake is around twenty metres lower than it was a century ago. In the 1930s a Soviet scheme began draining Sevan for irrigation and hydroelectricity, with the intention of reducing it to a fraction of its size. The water fell, the island joined the land, and villages, roads and forest appeared where the shoreline had been.
The plan was abandoned once the damage became obvious, and reversing it took engineering on the same scale. A tunnel forty-eight kilometres long was bored through the mountains to divert another river into the lake, finished in 1981, and a second was added later. The level has been climbing slowly since the turn of the century, which is why lakeside buildings from the Soviet decades now stand awkwardly close to the water.
Tsaghkadzor became a national training centre after the Mexico City Olympics of 1968, when it became clear that competing at altitude required training at altitude. The town sits at around one thousand eight hundred metres, and the sports complex built here put Soviet teams through their preparation for two decades. The ski runs and the ropeway are the visible remains of that decision.
Sevan's endemic trout is named ishkhan, meaning prince. Four subspecies once lived in the lake; two are gone, lost to the falling water levels that destroyed their spawning grounds and to species introduced to replace the catch. It is still the fish the region is known for, and still what the lakeside restaurants advertise.
Everything here is higher and colder than Yerevan, and the wind off the lake is constant. The ropeway can close in poor weather. The monastery is up a flight of open steps with no shade. Cancellation is free up to a day ahead.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
About eight hours from Yerevan, split between the mountain town and the lake, with a drive between the two and short walks at each.
Yes. Sevanavank stood on an island until the lake dropped roughly twenty metres during the twentieth century, joining it to the shore. You now walk out to it on dry land.
A Soviet scheme begun in the 1930s drained it for irrigation and hydroelectric power, intending to reduce it to a fraction of its area. The plan was abandoned once the consequences were clear.
A tunnel forty-eight kilometres long was driven through the mountains to divert another river into the lake, completed in 1981, with a second added later. The level has been rising slowly since around 2001.
The town became a Soviet altitude-training base after the 1968 Mexico City Olympics showed that competing high meant training high. The ski infrastructure dates from that period.
No — the ticket is bought at the station. Bad weather can close it, which is outside anyone's control on the day.
The lake's endemic trout, whose name means prince. Two of its four subspecies have been lost, to falling water levels and to fish introduced to replace the catch.