As I Like It: Day17 Monday 6th October

Now, I thought that my Geography was pretty good, but before planning this trip I had never heard of Yerevan. Had we not come here what a treat we would have missed.

I can say without qualification that this is one of the finest cities I have ever visited. Let me tell you why.

Yerevan has a checkered history. The city was founded in 782 BC by King Argishti 1. Since then it has been continually invaded, held and lost many times. Amongst others the Greeks, Romans, Seljuks, Persians, Moguls, Byzantines, Ottermans and finally the Russians. These latter were here both as part of the Tsarist Empire and then the Soviet regime.

The Soviets were responsible for building what is undoubtedly the finest example of a planned city centre in the classic Soviet style. It is grand and imperial on a Vienna scale. It reflects the local stone carving skills with the stone facing on the palatial concrete buildings. Indeed they are still building in this style today. Alexander Tamanyan developed the current grid plan in the 1920s with the idea that main avenues should point in the direction of Mt Ararat. It has hansom squares and is ringed with parks (cf. Kartner Ring).

That's just the architecture. The people are it's real strength. They are almost universally friendly and helpful. I have seen no examples of bad street behaviour. No loudness, drunkenness or even impoliteness. We have only encountered one beggar so far.

It's a cultural feast. The National Gallery holds the third-biggest collection of European masters in the former USSR. We have tickets for the opera in the State Opera House. It has a dozen or so museums plus several other galleries and churches, all located in the city centre and easily reached on foot.

The population is about a million (one third of the population of the country). The outer areas maintain an air of Soviet sprawl but these are limited by steep hills and gorges.

On top of all that it makes the best brandy in the world.

Time to look at some pictures.