Thursday, May 14, 2009

Goris- not a village, but not really a city






Goris is one of the last cities that you can stop in Armenia, before reaching Karabakh. Goris is very different, architecturally speaking, from the rest of the cities and villages in Yerevan because it has a very strict city layout which actually makes sense. Even as you approach it from the road above, you can see the difference because the houses are all set up in organized little rows, all evenly spaced. It's all thanks to the work of a German architect. An Armenian architect would never set up anything with a semblance of structure. But I digress....

It is a very small and depressing town, in which nothing seems to be going on. People just walk around with bored expressions on their faces, looking around for something new or interesting to happen.  It's too big to be a village, and in my opinion, too boring to really be considered a city. But in any case, it serves an important purpose because the road linking Armenia to Karabakh runs through Goris- so it is geographically significant. Their other claim to fame is that Mkhitar Sparapet- an Armenian hero- is buried here.

(Images from top: the church of Goris, an interesting man just going about his business, the park in the center of the city, the water fountain, a local store in Goris- it had a surprisingly vast selection of stuff).

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