My Armenian Sandbox: Yerevan Museums

On the morning of the 22nd me and my two roomates woke up and waited for our driver (who says my accent is too strong to understand and that I should speak better English!) to come pick us up. We met with the rest of the crew at one of the best views in the city, the A tower which commemorates the war period between Armenians and the Turks. After a brief history lesson and some group photo shots we got into our jeeps and headed to a place just outside of the city called Erebuni.

Erebuni is a Urartu fortress that was built in 785 BCE. The Fortress has been reconstructed and a small museum was built to display artifacts recovered as well as artifacts from the period found elsewhere in the region. I was astounded at how large some of the pithoi (essentially big clay jugs for my non-archaeologists) were - many were much taller than I am.

My absolute favourite museum of all time is the Matenadaran Institute, also known as the Armenian Manuscript Museum. The building is phenomenal with amazing statues outside to represent Mesrop Mashtots, the creator of the Armenian alphabet. Once inside I was in absolute heaven. Most people know I have a big thing for medieval manuscripts, especially illuminated ones (aka the ones with the pretty pictures). I have pretty much begged to see the Book of Hours that Memorial University has, but since I have no “research reason” they wont let me see it in person. So this was my first time getting to really look at illuminated manuscripts. The institute is not only a museum but also a research and conservation facility so we were able to see manuscripts which were considered “sick” and in a state of restoration. I was in absolute awe over the displays as the pigments and inks used where still extremely vibrant and were not in a friable state like I would imagine most vellum manuscripts of that age to be. The artwork and scribary was amazing, the bindings were extravagantly adorned with precious and semi precious stones, and they came in all sizes, from ones you could fit in a back pocket to ones the size of a dining table! Most were written in Armenian or Greek but they had a selection of manuscripts from around the world, including one in Hebrew which was a nice test for me since I am VERY out of practice. Unfortunately, I was only able to sneak one picture past the gaurds, which makes me very sad as it seriously may be the highlight of all the field trips for me.

After the manuscript museum everyone was starving, so we headed back to Caucasus, which seems to be the favourite restaurant of everyone in the field program. We had the typical fresh herbs, cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, and lavash spread. We also tried Spas which is a thin yogurt and barley based soup. I personally wasn’t a fan of this traditional soup, but everyone except me and Nathan loved it so our bowls never went to waste.

From lunch we went to the Armenian Genocide Museum and monument. It’s sad that we learn so much about the Holocaust in schools and we hear about Rwanda, and many other well known Genocides, but we are never taught about the Armenian Genocide. I can’t remember ever learning about the Armenian Genocide in history classes and I was shocked to hear the number of casualties, statistics and events of this period. Our guide did an excellent job talking about such a sombre topic and it was clearly very emotional. The Armenian Genocide happened in stages, first killing Armenian intellects such as writers, artists, scientists and composers, and then clergymen, and finally rounding up Armenian citizens for death. The photographs blown up on the walls showed horrifying images of emaciated bodies of both adults and children, and mass execution graves eerily resembling the well known images of the Holocaust seen in textbooks. After our tour we went out and went to the memorial which is a large stone structure with a torch in the middle. Everyone was really quiet and taking it all in, as there were other visitors there leaving flowers and praying... until we saw a guy who followed us at the Manuscript museum who felt it was appropriate to walk up and say “heyyy whassup girl” and started throwing pick up lines at us, so embarrassing and disrespectful.

The final Museum on our tour was the National Museum of History, although we were a little stretched for time and with someone who loved to lecture about the Bronze Age (and hated my beloved medieval period), we were able to rush through the Museum and look and some amazing artifacts from all periods of Armenian history (including some of the most intense bling I have seen).

After all of our Museum hopping we went home to rest and then met up with everyone to find the same Lahmajoon place we had been to before, as some of the girls had not been. We got very lost and ended up walking for three hours around Yerevan, and when it was found it was closed. We went to another pizza place which served the saltiest pizza with Basturma (a dried Armenian sausage) on top.

After supper myself, Taylor, Nathan, and Lauren split from the group to discover the Armenian nightlife. We heard some booming techno coming from a club and so we walked in only to find a room the size of a bathroom with a strobe light, a boom box, and some guys with bottles of alcohol on the table! After that sketchy experience we opted for one of the many outdoor bars and lounges in Yerevan and had some cocktails. I also lost my Hooka virginity. Most people know I don’t smoke at all, but I couldn’t turn this down because it’s so popular here and it’s something I’ve never had the chance to try it at home. I was really surprised at how smooth it was, iand it smelt amazing because we had a mix of rose and mnt. It was a really great night and a hilarious time, I really enjoy the outdoor lounge vibe and the servers here love us!

Armenian Genocide Monument