Khor Virap, #1, Armenia, 2022
Arguably the most Holy Site in Armenia
Over 1,700 years ago, Saint Gregory, the Illuminator, the patron saint of Armenia and the first head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, spent 13 years in a dungeon here, so this is most definitely a major sacred pilgrimage site for the Armenian faithful.
Just a few kilometers from the Turkish border, the area also offers amazing, close-up views of glacier-covered Mount Ararat. (No, we didn’t see Noah’s ark.) The mountain was formerly part of Armenian territory until the Turkish-Armenian War in 1920 and is still considered by many to be Armenia’s national symbol.
This is a common tourist trip out of Yerevan (45-50 minutes away), so you’ll find no shortage of “guides” willing to take you out here.
The Photographs
The nearby cemetery, with both new and ancient gravestones, is a special meditative place all by itself…
Khor Virap, #7, Armenia, 2022
Khor Virap, #8, Armenia, 2022
In this scene, the older graves stones on the hillside can be seen…
Khor Virap, #9, Armenia, 2022
Exterior views of the monastery/church complex…
Khor Virap, #20, Armenia, 2022
Set f/16 and put the Sun’s disc on the edge of the building and you get the classic starburst effect. Exact characterisics will vary with the lens. This was shot with the Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 wide angle lens…
Khor Virap, #21, Armenia, 2022
Khor Virap, #12, Armenia, 2022
Khor Virap, #13, Armenia, 2022
Another “f/16” shot…
Khor Virap, #16, Armenia, 2022
The groundskeeper at work, sweeping the yard…
Khor Virap, #23, Armenia, 2022
Khor Virap, #30, Armenia, 2022
Khor Virap, #31, Armenia, 2022
From the summit of the hill above Khor Virap, you can look down on the expanse of the nearby cemetery. The older graves are mostly on the small hill at the far right…
Khor Virap, #33, Armenia, 2022
Khor Virap, #35, Armenia, 2022
I felt like the interior views worked better in color. All shots were hand held–holding my breath and squeezing, or bracing myself against a door, wall or column. At ISO 1600, the shutter speeds were pretty slow, often down to 1/25 of a second. A little noise reduction in camera raw fixes the noise issue at the higher ISO…
Khor Virap, #15, Armenia, 2022
The Nikon D850 handles these lighting situations pretty well, although shooting from a tripod would have been much, much better. From a tripod, you hcan shoot at really slow shutter speeds and ISO 64, an ISO which permits a super wide range of adjustments in shadows and highlights in camera raw during post…
Khor Virap, #14, Armenia, 2022
Lighting candles in loving memory of others, both living and not.
This room was extremely dark, but even at ISO 1600 I was able to bring out enough detail in the shadows to make the image work…
Khor Virap, #17, Armenia, 2022
It was below the floor of this chapel, in a small dungeon, where Gregory the Illuminator was held. He was released after 13 years or so when he cured the King of his insanity–after which the King and his court quickly converted to Christianity thus making Armenia a Christian nation way back in the 4th century.
The tiny hole that serves as the entrance to the dungeon is just right of the altar area and just below that painting on the wall. The door, as you can see, is a magnificet work of art…
Khor Virap, #19, Armenia, 2022
Khor Virap, #18, Armenia, 2022
They say that the scars on the walls of this small chapel were painfully made–over many, many centuries–by the fingers of the multitudes of religious faithful in their ecstasy and frenzy…
Khor Virap, #22, Armenia, 2022
The vertical ladder dropping down in to Gregory’s awful prison pit…
Khor Virap, #24, Armenia, 2022
The bottom end of the ladder…
Khor Virap, #24b, Armenia, 2022
As the story goes, Gregory survived because a village woman would throw food and water down a small shaft into the pit (that triangular thing visible just above the hanging lamp). He was only expected to last days, but held on for some 13 years…
Khor Virap, #24a, Armenia, 2022
On the opposite side of the chapel, there is another, much smaller, pit that seems to be used as a sort of altar. If you are taller than six feet, though, it will be a bit of a squeeze to spelunk your way through the opening…
Khor Virap, #25, Armenia, 2022
Back up on the main floor of the little chapel, the altar is still quite basic but quite eloquent in an Armenian -Orthodox sort o’ way…
Khor Virap, #26, Armenia, 2022
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