Armenia

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Armenia’s History, Culture, and People

Armenia occupies a territory of 29, 800 square kilometers. The average altitude of
the territory is 1, 800 meters above sea level, the highest peak has an altitude of 4, 090
meters and the lowest point is the Debed canyon with an altitude of 380 meters. The
Armenian Plateau contains an endless chain of mountains, lakes hidden in the heights,
mountain torrents and waterfalls, valleys, forests, and isolated highlands. Dhilawala (1997
p. 27) states “Lake Sevan unveils itself with constantly changing colors- harmoniously
matching or conforming itself to the sky. It is almost sinful to visit Armenia and to not see
Lake Sevan.” Sevan is known as a lake of mysteries, located at an altitude of 1, 900
meters above sea level, and the deepest part of this lake is 99 meters. One river, Hrazdan,
flows out of Lake Sevan while twenty-eight rivers merge into it. Besides the lakes, rivers,
and springs, the country is rich with mineral waters. Dhilawala states ( 1997 p. 42) “on
any visit to Armenia you will see natural wonders, and an embroidery of crosses carved
into mountains.”

History
History has thrown more than a few bad hands Armenia’s way. Baliozian (1980 p.
14) states “poor little Armenia has been the mouflon in the sandwich between warring
nations and factions for millennia, and its people have been used as spear fodder time and
time again. They’ve been shipped or fled back and forth across burning deserts with the
vicissitudes of shifting borders or the whims of empire builders in far flung capitals.
National borders, historic and present, tend to waver depending on whom you’re talking

(Armenia’s History, Culture, and People, 2)

to, but what- is- what- where pressure cooker of ethnic migrations, competing religions,
jostling international egos, envy, ethnic hatred, warring armies, grand victories and
...