Day 01
Yerevan, Ejmiatsin Churches and Zvartnots Excursion
- 9:00: Departure from Yerevan.
- 9:45: Visit the Mother Church. The city of Ejmiatsin is best known as the location of Etchmiadzin Cathedral and the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the center of the Armenian Apostolic Church. It is thus unofficially known in Western sources as a "holy city" and in Armenia as the country's "spiritual capital".
- 10:00: Continue to the museum-treasury.
- 11:20: See St. Gayane Church. Gayane was the name of an abbess martyred with other nuns by Tiridates III of Armenia in 301 and subsequently made a saint of the Armenian Apostolic Church. In 2000, Saint Gayane Church was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with the historical churches of Vagharshapat.
- 12:30 - 14:00: Have a break for traditional Armenian cuisine.
- 14:15: Head to St. Shoghakat Church. The Church of Shoghakat, meaning "drop of light" because of the ray of light that came down from heaven upon Hripsime's martyrs, was erected in 1694.
- 14:50: Continue to St. Hripsime Church, one of the oldest surviving churches in the country. Catholicos Komitas erected the church to replace the original mausoleum built by Catholicos Sahak the Great in 395 AD, which contained the remains of the martyred Saint Hripsime, to whom the church is dedicated.
- 15:30: Move to Zvartnots Cathedral. Zvartnots Cathedral is a 7th-century centrally planned aisled tetraconch-type Armenian cathedral built by order of Catholicos Nerses the Builder from 643-652. Now in ruins, it is located at the edge of the city of Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin) in the Armavir Province of Armenia.
- 16:30: Explore Musaler, where it is worth visiting the memorial and museum in Armenia.
- 17:00: Stop at Musaler Museum.
- 18:00: Return to Yerevan.
