YEREVAN, APRIL 6, ARMENPRESS. Columnist of British News The Essential Daily Briefing portal Dimitris Hall has published an article about Armenia, naming the 5 places where, according to him, any tourist should visit. “This former Soviet city is older than Rome and is full of ancient and modern culture interacting in interesting ways”, ARMENPRESS reports he wrote.

The author notes that Ararat is one of Armenia’s best-known brandy makers, but not the only one. “In fact, the Noy Wine Factory is built on the foundations of a 16th-century fortress, the walls of which are accessible from the cellar”.

Dimitris Hall also advises the tourists to visit the Lovers’ Park. “It’s right in the city centre, a quiet oasis close to all the important government buildings and sights, such as the Presidential Palace and the National Assembly, and is surrounded by fountains, plants, flowers and statues”, he wrote.

The author also advises to see the Public Radio located in the city center. “One of Yerevan’s most important claims to fame isthe jokes connected to Radio Yerevan and its public radio company from the days of the USSR. The popularity of these jokes across the Iron Curtain during the Cold War brought the East and West closer together, and they can still be heard in some countries to this day”, Dimitris Hall wrote, advising to also visit Yerevan Museum of Folk Art and get acquainted with the works of sculptor Eduard Ghazaryan.

“The man known as the “Armenian da Vinci” was the creator (and player) of the world’s smallest violin. Eduard Khazaryan passed away in 2012 and was a polymath sculptor that worked to extraordinarily microscopic levels, often creating works of art smaller than a grain of sugar or containing elements hundreds of times thinner than a human hair. His work was exhibited in the US, where it was dubbed an “8th wonder of the world”, he wrote, advising to finally visit the Yerevanian Lake where a trolleybus with 96 passengers onboard fell into. “Yerevanian Lake. an artificial reservoir in the outskirts of the city, hides secrets in its depths. In 1968, Paleolithic obsidian tools were discovered in a flooded cave on its shores, now belonging to the US Embassy in Armenia and currently out of bounds. Only 8 years later, in 1976, a trolleybus fell into the reservoir carrying 96 passengers, most of which did not survive. Amazingly, world record-breaking fin-swimming champion Shavarsh Karapetyan was jogging along the lake at the time and made history by heroically diving in and managing to save 20 of the trapped passengers from a depth of 10 metres. His sports career was ruined, and the tragedy, too negative for the USSR’s image at the time, was censored within the country, but that only made this lake’s reputation greater”.

English –translator/editor: Tigran Sirekanyan