Under Yves' request, which Armine agreed to, we left the hotel slightly earlier to briefly stop at the Blue Mosque so as to photograph it.
We strolled around its yard for a short while admiring the beautiful tile work covering the façades of the portals, the minaret and the dome.
We then headed towards the Matedanaran Museum, which is a repository of Armenia's medieval written culture and thus considered a world-class Museum.
In front of the huge gray basalt building stood the statues of the main figures of Armenian Literature, amongst which were Mesrop Mashtots, the inventor of the Arenian alphabet and Anania Shirakatsi, the mathematician, who fixed the Armenian calendar.
Before we walked in we still had time to take some photographs to the Mount Ararat, which could be seen from the top of the stairs.
The moment we walked into the hall of the Museum we came across a mosaic of the battle of Avarayr and frescoes above the central stairs depicting the Armenian history, all by H. Khachatrian.
We were conducted through the various galleries opened to the public by one of the Museum guides, who made sure we were told every little detail regarding some of the most important hand-painted manuscript miniatures in display.
Two hours were not enough to see but a small part of the richness being exhibited.
I was thrilled and after the provided explanations would no doubt pay a lot more attention to the reproductions illustrating one of the books I had bought in one of Yerevan arcades' bookshops on Armenian manuscripts.
Our next visit was to the Sergei Parajanov (1924-1990) Museum, which not only is a tribute to one of the greatest acknowledged figures of the 20th century but also represents his diverse artistic and literary heritage.
Better known as a film director Sergei Parajanov Museum comprises over 1,400 works of Art including installations, "collages", assemblages, drawings, dolls and even hats. His "raw" creativity may offend the viewers and shock them at times. I did like some of his works, though what I was mostly impressed with were the drawings he made when he was in the Siberian labour camps, the small carved medallions made out of bottle tops and representing some of his labour camp friends, as well as some of the mosaic panels.
Most people within my group disliked the exhibition and I can understand their reasons for not having liked it, though one thing must be said - Parajanov was an exquisite artist with an immense creativity, taking advantage of almost any day-to-day material he had access to, so as to construct his Art and that in itself is sufficient reason to admire and praise him.
As we walked out we "caught sight" of a rather beautiful view of Ararat with the stadium in its foreground.
The last visit of the morning was to Ararat Charents Arch. Erected in 1957 the monument provides a breathtaking view of Mountain Ararat. The words carved on the arch belong to one of Armenia's most famous poets - Yeghisheh Charents (1897-1937).
"Travel the world: you will never find a crest as pure as Ararat's. As an impassible road to glory, I love my Masis Mountain."
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