The deep south
A prehistoric stone circle on a windswept plateau, a town of cut-stone streets, and the rock dwellings people left only seventy years ago.
Duration
13 hours
Group
Small group, max 16
Difficulty
Moderate — long drive, open ground
Languages
EN · RU · DE · FR · IT · ES
Worth knowingThis pairs naturally with Tatev as a two-day trip with a night in Goris, which we strongly prefer. Ask us about the overnight version.
A long drive — four hours or so — through Vayots Dzor and up onto the Syunik plateau.
Also called Karahunj. Over two hundred basalt stones standing on a plateau at about 1,770 metres, many pierced with smooth round holes. It is often marketed as "the Armenian Stonehenge" and as an ancient observatory. Be aware that the astronomical interpretation is contested and not established archaeologically — what is not in doubt is that it is a burial and ritual site of considerable age, and that standing among the stones in the wind is remarkable.
A town laid out on a formal grid in the nineteenth century, in a valley of eroded rock pinnacles. Cut-stone houses with wooden balconies, and the pinnacles above the roofline.
The cave and cut-rock village across the ravine, inhabited well into the twentieth century and finally abandoned in the 1950s. A 160-metre swinging bridge, built by the villagers in 2012, crosses to it — and it sways.
A stop on the Vorotan on the way back north.
Back in Yerevan around 20:30.
In the price
Not included
Stops in the order we visit them. Distances are indicative, not a driving route.
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Want it privately?
Your own vehicle and guide, your own start time, and the freedom to linger where it is worth lingering.