Lori is my home province in northern Armenia, and it looks nothing like the dry, sun-baked plateaus most first-time visitors expect. Here, deep basalt gorges carved by the Debed and Dzoraget rivers stay green well into autumn, and thick morning fog often hangs below the canyon rim before lifting to reveal old stone domes on the high pastures.
Living year-round in Vanadzor, the regional capital, I write road-tested guides to Lori: the UNESCO-listed monasteries of Haghpat and Sanahin, the early medieval arcaded basilica at Odzun, Dsegh, the village where the poet Hovhannes Tumanyan was born, pine-scented walks in the Stepanavan Dendropark, and the houses and samovar tea of Fioletovo, home to Armenia’s Russian Molokan community. You will also find practical notes on mountain roads, transport between Yerevan and Tbilisi, and quiet guesthouses along the canyon.
Odzun stays in my memory as light stone. Its arcades, two carved stelae and a message found under the roof are worth a slow look.
I went to Haghpat at the end of May. The green hills, the dark stone and one small manuscript story stayed with me.