Armenia is a very old country, which was once an ancient kingdom. It was the first country to declare itself a Christian nation.
Armenia is a small country which had the Ottomans to the west, Persia to the east, Russia to the north, and the Arab countries further south. It was also located right in the path of conquerors from the east, such as the Mongols and the Timurids. Armenia has thus been a part of many empires, with periodic times of independence. It took advantage of Alexander's defeat of Persia to gain independence more than two thousand years ago. It most recently became an independent country after the end of the Soviet Union.The capital city of Armenia today is Yerevan. It is a very old city but has not always been the capital of the country. It is close to being the oldest city in the world, in which there has been no break in habitation, on a par with cities like Damascus and Aleppo.
Mount Ararat is considered as sacred by Armenians. It can be seen from Yerevan but is actually across the border in Turkey. Do the Armenians in the Buffalo-Niagara area know that Grand Island was once purchased by a man named Noah as a homeland for the Jews, before the reestablishment of Israel, and it was to be called "Ararat"?
The southern part of Yerevan is the oldest part of the city. This is the area around the Erebuni Fortress, built on a hill, which dates from 782 B.C.
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At the center of modern Yerevan is Republic Square. For such an ancient city, so much of what we see today was only built in the Twentieth Century. The following scenes begin near Republic Square.
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This is on the other side of the central part of Yerevan, the northern side. The great stairs are known as the Cascade Complex.
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Here is a residential area of Yerevan.
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Armenia is known for carpets, and has been for centuries. The disadvantage of building in stone, aside from the fact that stone buildings are more brittle and vulnerable to earthquakes than wood buildings, is that stone is not a very good insulator. Carpets and tapestries became such an important art because, on floors or hung on walls, they were not only decorative and told a story, but also provided good insulation.
Armenia is actually in two pieces. I remember reading the news in 1988 when I first heard of Nagorno-Karabakh. It is an enclave in neighboring Azerbaijan, which was also a Soviet republic, that was populated by Armenians, and which wanted to join with Armenia. The conflict led to a war and to the founding of the nation of Artsakh which, at this point, has limited international recognition.
Also in late 1988, there was a devastating earthquake in the northern part of the country.
The capital city of Artsakh, which is the former Nagorno-Karabakh, is Stepanakert. The city is about 75 km from the border of Armenia proper. This is what Stepanakert looks like today.
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This is the Khor Virap Monastery, adjacent to Mount Ararat which is just across the border in Turkey. The monastery is built at the site where St. Gregory the Illuminator had earlier been imprisoned. It was St. Gregory, for whom the cathedral in Yerevan is named, who is credited with converting Armenia to Christianity.
Christianity in Armenia was of the christology known as miaphysite. There are three basic ways of looking at the relationship between the human and divine natures of Jesus. The most common view is the Chalcedonian, named for the Council of Chalcedon early in Christian history where it was established. This is the "two natures in one" view shared by Catholics, Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Churches. Neither the Great Schism of 1054 or the Reformation questioned this view.
Another view of christology is the Nestorian, or "Church of the East", with Jesus having two completely separate natures, one human and one divine. The miaphysite view is that the divine nature of Jesus was so overwhelming that it completely engulfed his human nature, like a drop of water in the ocean.
The reason that we so rarely hear of christology today, the spell-checker on this blog doesn't even recognize the word, is that the vast majority of Christians accept the conclusion of the Council of Chalcedon.
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