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Tavush marz Guide
72 pages

Tavush lies in the Northeast of Armenia, and is considered by many its most remote area. A tiny portion of the North-South corridor from Georgia to Iran passes through the far NW end of the marz, leaving the rest to be served by rugged mountain roads (read: pot-holed or rutted dirt paths) into its mountain hamlets. The rest is hemmed in by the Virahaiyots, Gugarats and Miapor mountains and the tributaries of the Kura River flowing to the Azerbaijan border to the east.

The marz is a folded mountainscape, with heavily forested mountains plunging into canyons and white-water rivers coursing through the region. Forests give way to mountain meadows and a cool, crisp landscape of wild flowers and eagles in the upper elevations, and some of Armenia’s mildest weather in the lower elevations, with plenty of snow in the winter and moist, cool summers. Fog often envelops the mountains in the early morning hours, giving a haunting, comforting feel to the landscape.

To the north is the (now dormant) industrial town of Noyemberian, in the Koghb riverbed. Nearby are the amazing Koghb monastery and some important archeological excavations, plus the road to Georgia and Tbilisi. In the south is the resort town of Dilijan, dubbed Armenia’s Little Switzerland” by the Soviet Tourist board, and in this case the proletariat got it right. Houses boast wooden lattice trim and balustrades with a uniquely Tavush design in the stonework. The center holds Ijevan, a second resort area and favorite summer camp area during Soviet times. Ijevan is the gateway to the East, over the high Sarum and Tsaghkut mountain passes into the incredible, wild, Tavush mountain valleys and Shamshadin, Armenia’s “Shangri La”. All the towns in this region ramble up and down wooded hills, you are never far from solitude and nature.

Like Lori a part of the Gugark Kingdom, from the beginning the area was known as the “middle land” (middle earth may be more to the truth), craved for its natural resources and as a buffer zone between Armenia and its eastern enemies. Castles and fortresses from the Bronze Age forward dot the landscape, especially in the east. A domain for the Armenian kings and princes (Mamikonian, Bagratuni, Zakarian, Orbeli) as well as the Kings of Georgia, Tavush has traces of each epoch of its history indelibly carved into its mountains and valleys.

The capital of the region is Ijevan, in a valley with woodlands and vineyards, and is home to Ijevan Winery, one of the most successful wineries in the country.

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