MORNING WALKS AROUND THE VILLAGE OF MAKRAVANK

All summer, whenever I was home in Hrazdan, I would take an early morning walk around the village of Makravank, just behind Hrazdan where I live.  Other seasons I walk late afternoons. I will take you on a pictorial journey of this walk which is about two miles. It is mostly up hill to the monastery.  You can find the village of Makravank on Wikipedia if you want to read more about it and get the details. I don't know - I find it a very peaceful place - especially up at the monastery. Difficult to walk in the winter because of mud and the roads are not plowed of the snow.

 

Shooka just outside of my steps... All this

food is put out, and then taken in in the evening -

an incredible amount of work done solely by old women.

 

Old women who sell at the shooka.

They are both 75 years old. They dress like this

all summer. The one on the right was upset because

I took her picture. They dress very Russian. I love their

old and warn faces.

 

Rest shelter make of branches

and twigs just inside the village.

There is a bed/cot type thing in there

 and an old old table and chair.

 

Road leading into the village.  The pipe lines across the

road are gas lines. In Armenia they are all very old and

all are above ground except for in Yerevan, the capital city.

 

Barn in foreground and house after...Almost all

families have a cow or two, chickens, goat and maybe

a few sheep.

 

Here you can see the extreme poverty and harsh

living conditions.

 

All roofs are old metal, single pane old windows, no

insulation in the homes.

 

Typical village house.... Usually only one room

is heated in the winter and the family lives and sleeps

in this room with wood stove or gas heater - very old.

 

Most fences are made of bedsprings and/or bedsteads

i.e. old iron headboard/footboard as seen here.

 

Livestock are taken up to the field

every day by the old people. Sometimes

they stay with the animals or go back to

get them later in the day.

 

His beautiful old face...

 

Virtually every home in the village has a garden with

potatoes and beans. Notice the bean poles.. There are an

incredible amount of fruit trees with peaches, plums, apples,

pears and apricots.  The women can everything for winter and

potatoes are kept in the barn or root room above ground.

 

Livestock are also tied up everywhere and anywhere

with pieces of rope and somehow attached to the ground.

 

Hrazdan/Raykom as seen from up by the monastery.  I live

down on the left. Used to live in a high rise but now

on the third floor of a small building over a small

neighborhood grocery store.

 

Close to same view as above, only winter time.

 

 

Approaching the 11th century Makravank monastery.

 

View of the monastery...

 

Sculpted gravestones of priests from early centuries.

These are called khachkars and  there are thousands

of them all over Armenia.

 

Side door of monastery. It is locked. Families

in nearby houses keep the keys and if you can

find them home they will give you the key.  Inside the

tapestries are all tattered and torn and people often

light candles inside and little religious relics.

 

Another entrance. One time I saw blood in the snow

where a sacrifice of some animal was made.

 

Alter area inside of the monastery...

 

Another view of the alter area...

Notice the colors - paint.

 

Peace...I love this place.

There are hundreds of these monasteries

built almost the same, all over Armenia. The

architecture is the same with the round steeple design on

all of them.  They are always built in places of high

elevation - up on a hill or mountain.