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Under normal circumstances we wouldn't have been able to photograph the Cathedral's interior but we did take advantage of the presence of so many cameramen and reporters to do so, despite the difficulty of getting the best possible photography angles, together with the fact that a church service was going on and it would obviously not be considered correct to use the religious event for our sole benefit.
The huge crowd of worshippers did anticipate the subtlest move on the part of the Catholikos and moved accordingly so as to get their benediction. As foreigners who were a bit lost in as much as we couldn't understand the language and the service sequence we nevertheless followed the crowd and many of us were touched by one of the Catholikos who approached the crowd during the benediction ceremonial acts.
Despite the fact that the church service did get most of our attention I couldn't avoid noticing the beauty of the paintings on the dome above the main altar, which are said to have been done by some of the members of a prominent family of Armenian painters throughout the years - the Hovnatanians.
As soon as the last benediction ceremony ended we followed the crowd out and although I felt I should have stayed in the church interior for a little longer I nevertheless felt lucky to have been able to capture some of its images and the overall church ceremony atmosphere.
Once I was out my eyes followed a Catholikos who accompanied by a young lady strolled around the Cathedral's yard with his floating black cape in a rather natural way, as opposed to the previous pomp and circumstance-type of way displayed just minutes before.
As we were walking out of the Cathedral ensemble I noticed some rather interesting chalk sketches representing scenes from the Bible covering most of the area on one of the pavements leading to the gate, which had most convincingly been made by children.
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