Urartu is the Assyrian name of an empire in the Armenian Highlands and is situated between the three lakes of Van, Sevan And Urmia, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. King Menua and his successor, Argitschi, made this country the most powerful state in the Near East with the mighty Erebuni Fortress, the foundation stone of today's capital, Jerewan.

North of the village of Hovhanavank is situated the Saghmosawank Monastery, the Psalm Monastery. During the monastery's heyday, particularly psalteries were written at the famous scriptorium. Arutsch unites early Christian with pagan, and even Islamic traditions. This prehistoric place has always been considered sacred by the meeting of various cosmic forces.

In the Armenian Highlands at the southern edge of the Caucasus is situated a burial ground and a Bronze Age settlement. Three thousand five hundred years older than England’s Stonehenge, and three hundred years older than Egypt‘s pyramids. The huge Tatew Monastery complex remained Armenia's most active monastery for an entire millennium with all the workrooms and outbuildings on the inner walls of the monastery. The Peter And Paul is the oldest and largest building, completed in around 906 A.D. on the site of an ancient sanctuary.

The monastery fortress of Chor Wirap is located on a hill, within sight of Mount Ararat. In ancient times, Artaschat was situated at this location, the historical capital of Armenia. At the centre of the complex is Our Lady's Church, built in the thirteenth century. It is hard to imagine that this was once the court prison of a pagan king and Catholicos Neres built a monastery on thie site.