We had to take the luggage with us as we were driving west and wouldn't be back in Yerevan but on the eve of our return home.
As we drove away from the capital city we came across another one of those kilometre stretching cemeteries along the road, which I had been touched by and which I couldn't help photographing over and over again. In a way the dead seemed to accompany the living and be present in their daily lives and at that moment in time I was beginning to feel that maybe it wasn't such a bad thing.
I saw some women collecting herbs in the fields, which Armine told us was quite normal over the Springtime period.
The landscape did change from the one we had seen so far. We were now crossing arid steppes interspersed by pasture lands.
We reached Talin with its outstanding red and grey tuff Cathedral surrounded by an extremely large area of tombstones. The small church, Surp Astvatsatsin (613-615) located in one corner of the site seemed to be what attracted people's attention first, particularly due to the Armenian Khachkar prototype of pedestal and monument decorated with Christian relieves standing in front of it.
As we drove away from the capital city we came across another one of those kilometre stretching cemeteries along the road, which I had been touched by and which I couldn't help photographing over and over again. In a way the dead seemed to accompany the living and be present in their daily lives and at that moment in time I was beginning to feel that maybe it wasn't such a bad thing.
I saw some women collecting herbs in the fields, which Armine told us was quite normal over the Springtime period.
The landscape did change from the one we had seen so far. We were now crossing arid steppes interspersed by pasture lands.
We reached Talin with its outstanding red and grey tuff Cathedral surrounded by an extremely large area of tombstones. The small church, Surp Astvatsatsin (613-615) located in one corner of the site seemed to be what attracted people's attention first, particularly due to the Armenian Khachkar prototype of pedestal and monument decorated with Christian relieves standing in front of it.
Having lost its cupola in an earthquake in 1840 and further damaged by another in 1931 the 7th century Cathedral of Talin with its 12-sided tambour decorated with arches into which windows are set is still impressive to look at.
Remains of frescoes could still be seen, despite having been clearly damaged over time, but the wide variety of window, capital and arch decorations with motifs of leaves and fruits of vine and pomegranates were really worth looking at, together with a rather exquisite sundial on one of its façades.
Hi Iolanda,
ReplyDeleteI'm writing from an Opera company in the UK that would love to use one of your stelae images in our programme - if you would be happy for us to use one (and credit you, of course) do let me know!
With many thanks,
Oliver