Kapan sits in a glorious valley that's slashed through by high mountains. It marks the point where the craggy massifs of the Zangezur range sprawl out to meet Azerbaijan's exclave in the west, and is the provincial capital of the Syunik region. Just a small highland settlement until the 18^th century, the place was ravaged by Mongol hordes and Persian princes throughout the ages; a reminder of those tumultuous times can still be seen clutching the peaks in the form of the Baghaberd Fortress. In the early 1720s, Kapan became the base for the Armenian freedom fighter David Bek, who warred with the Ottomans from the keeps of both Baghaberd and Halidzor. Later, the town boomed with Russian mining industries, which gave the larger districts that can now be explored in the linear valley-bottom running towards the Zangezur. Kapan tour guides will be happy to lead hiking trips to the lookouts of 3,200-meter-high Mount Khustup, or out to see the mystical ruins of the Vahanavank Monastery, where the Syunik monarchs themselves once came to worship.