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Sanahin and Hagphat were both founded during a particularly rich period in Armenian history known as the Armenian Renaissance. After centuries of Arab and/or Byzantine control, in 885 the Armenian Bagratids became the recognized rulers of large parts of present day Armenia (as well as other regions beyond its current borders). The monasteries were founded in the tenth century with the patronage of that dynasty and quickly became important centers of teaching and learning. A kind of medieval university operated at Sanahin, with learned priests teaching courses in theology, philosophy, and science. Above, the Academy Hall at Sanahin, which seems to have been a sort of lecture or seminar hall. Notice the isles of nooks where scholars could sit while they listened, debated and studied. Also notice the elaborately-carved khachkars, or stone-crosses, at the end of the hall. They are a ubiquitous and uniquely Armenian art form. The Academy at Sanahin, Armenia.
Macarons: A sweet cookie to try when it’s not so outrageously expensive. In France, best to try and buy outside of the tourist areas.
Moon - A Haiku
Melancholy night
high above the ocean moon
in your hair a pearl
I was just playing around with my phone and found out it has an astrophotography setting and decided to try it out.
youtu.be/L0bcRCCg01I?feature=shared
Storm At Sea
© Amar Qamar
CRASHING waves... SMASHING seas...
Bringing sailors to their knees.
As they struggle to save their lives,
Hoping and praying help arrives.
The stormy seas as dark as coal,
Preventing the sailors from reaching their goal.
Battered and bruised, but still they fight...
Staring ahead into the dead of night.
Rocking and rolling as they try to stand...
Hoping against hope that they soon reach land.
Bleary eyed from lack of sleep.
Down in their cabins, huddled like sheep.
As they're rocking and rolling down beneath,
Weary sailors above resist with gritted teeth.
Hours later, as the storm starts to dissipate,
It leaves a calm tranquil sea in it wake.
The veteran sailors know the battle is over and they have won...
As they contemplate other storms yet to come...
After the conquests of Alexander Armenia became a part of the Hellenistic world. Upon his death in 323 BC his empire was divided among his generals, with Armenia and much of the Near East going to Seleucus. In time these Hellenistic kingdoms gave way to better organized powers, particularly Rome and Parthia, who collided wherever their empires met, including Armenia.
In 63 AD the two powers worked out a strange compromise whereby it was agreed that a member of the Parthian royal family would rule Armenia, but he would have travel to Rome and abase himself to receive his crown from the Roman Emperor. So it was that in 66 AD the Parthian Prince Tiridates I traveled to Rome and was crowned King of Armenia by none other than the infamous Nero.
An inscription found near the Garni Temple strongly suggests it was built in 77 AD by this same Tiridates I and dedicated to the sun god Mihr/Mithra. Today it is the sole surviving pagan or classical building in Armenia. In 301 Armenia became the world's first Christian country and essentially all pagan architecture was destroyed, but the Garni Temple alone survived, probably because it was incorporated into a royal complex.
The temple stood for sixteen centuries before it was toppled by an earthquake in 1679. It lay in ruins for three more centuries, but was reassembled in 1969-75 with the approval of a new overlord, the Soviet Union (it is the only Hellenistic building in the former Soviet world). Note the plain replacement pieces--very distinct from the original--that were used to bring the temple back to life.
Mrs. Orca at the Garni Temple, Armenia.
Rila Monastery was founded in the tenth century during the First Bulgarian Empire by followers of the hermit Saint Ivan of Rila. Little survives of its earliest period, but it's quite an enormous and impressive multistory walled complex, complete with central church, defensive tower, cells for hundreds of monks, and massive facilities to support the economic functions of the monastery, which included milling, forestry, agriculture, beekeeping, fish farming and supporting the pilgrim trade.
Over the centuries the monastery was alternately plundered and protected by the conquering Ottomans. In 1833 most of it was destroyed in an accidental fire, but it was rebuilt with Ottoman permission. Today it mixes Byzantine, Moorish, Ottoman, Baroque and medieval defensive architectural styles in a manner that is somehow coherent and recognizable as the synthesis called Bulgarian Revival.
It is still an active pilgrimage destination and monastery, albeit with a very small complement of monks. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and, of course, a popular tourist destination. Rila Monastery, Rila Mountains, Bulgaria.
We spent about a month in Bulgaria this summer. We were there once before--in 2019, also for about a month--and instantly fell in love with the country. That summer we hiked the Bulgarian National Trail, the Kom Emine, which coincides with the E3, crossing Bulgaria from Kom Peak in the West to Cape Emine on the Black Sea in the East. That trail had some awesome scenery but was somewhat more of a cultural experience, since it had almost no foreign tourists and crossed through extensive stretches where people were engaged in shepherding, forestry and agriculture.
While we were there we made friends and learned of the Five Mountains Trail, which coincides with the E4 and crosses Bulgaria from Sofia in the north to the Greek border in the south. It is a more developed, heavily traveled, and rugged alpine trail. We knew we would return to do that some day, and when the opportunity presented itself this summer we jumped at it.
In about 250km the trail passes through five mountain ranges: Vitosha, Verila, Rila, Pirin and Slavyanka. There are many peaks and passes over 2000m, and the scenery in Rila and Pirin rivals that of much more famous European ranges. The trail also boasts a very well developed hut system so that you can end most days with good food, drink, company and shelter, which is usually what we chose to do.
Mrs. Orca on the first day of the E4, near the top of Cherni Vrah (2290m), Vitosha Mountains, Bulgaria.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIHyAqrUVsI
Away! away! for I will fly to thee,
Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards,
But on the viewless wings of Poesy …
John Keats
When I was cleaning up after the raccoons I picked up a rock and found this underneath. I've seen them in the forest nearby, but never before in the yard. Mrs. Orca and I have been planning to put in a small pond designed specifically for the tree frogs to breed in, but this discovery adds new urgency to do so. Rough-skinned newt, backyard Olympia.
Note (10.24.25): I turned over a rock in the course of some yardwork today and found another, or (less likely?) the same. It appeared to be in a state of torpor or hibernation, but it's hard to tell as they are slow movers in the best of times. Our frog and newt pond is in and just needs to be planted. Hopefully in a year or two we start to see their numbers increase.
The concept for this Soviet Era megaproject dates to the 1920s, but construction only began fifty years later. It is a kind of grand staircase and gardens linking downtown Yerevan with Victory Park atop the higher section of the city. Construction was not yet complete at the time of the 1988 earthquake and the Soviet collapse. It is now mostly usable, with escalators and an art museum on the inside and gardens and water features on the surface, but there is still a huge section near the top of the complex that is currently just a pit with foundations, as one or more terraces of the cascade between the victory monument and existing structure have still not been completed. To reach the victory monument, from which fine views of Mount Ararat can be had on a clear day, you must divert off the complex to a side street then climb up an improvised stairway/scaffolding to come out on top. At the bottom (above) there is also a pretty whimsical sculpture garden. The Cascades, Yerevan, Armenia.
Northern lights, 20. Januar 2026
Greiling / South Bavaria / South Germany
Google Pixel 8 Pro
Astromodus
4min Belichtung via 16sec Einzelbilder (Stacking)
ISO 471
25mm KB
Yerevan's name derives from the Erubuni Fortress, founded in 782 BC by the Urartian King Argishti I. While we were there what appeared to be a joint French and Armenian team of archaeologists were wrapping up a recent excavation. The on-site museum and the History Museum of Armenia already contain remarkable inscriptions, artifacts and frescoes that paint a vivid picture of that distant world of more than 2800 years ago.
When not under local control, Armenia has since been ruled over by a succession of empires: Medes, Achaemenids, Macedonians, Seleucids, Romans, Parthians, Sasanids, Byzantines, Abbasids, Seljuks, Mongols, Safavids, Ottomons, Russians and Soviets. During all that time Yerevan has been inhabited continuously. Today it has over a million people and is noticeably overcrowded, and promises to become more so: huge apartment blocks (back of image) are going up everywhere on the outskirts of the city. Walls of the Erubuni Fortress, Yerevan, Armenia.
I had to wonder if men were so blinded by beauty that they would feel privileged to live their lives with an actual demon, so long as it was a beautiful demon. — Arthur Golden
We spent three nights in the small town of Sanahin visiting its monastery and the neighboring monastery of Hagphat, which is on the other side of Debed Canyon but connected via a scenic day hike. While they likely had early medieval antecedents, the current complexes date to the tenth century when they became centers of scholarship under the royal patronage of the Bagratid and (later) Zakarid dynasty. Both complexes are Unesco World Heritage sites and are extremely well preserved with interesting buildings such as churches, gavits, scriptoriums, bell towers, refectories and spring houses. There are however no evident traces of dormitories for the hundreds of monks who once lived here, which must have been built of more ephemeral materials. Above, the Church of St. Amenaprkitch, built in the second half of the tenth century, Sanahin, Armenia.
Hier macht die reißende Isar ihrem Namen alle Ehre (aus dem Keltischen "Isaria" - die Reißende)
Stromschnellen bei Lenggries
We camped the first night of the E4 on the slopes of Vitosha next to the abandoned Smilyo Shelter, then woke up very early for the eight hour walk to Klisura. This stage is the lowest of the whole hike (around 1000-1400m), as it crosses the Verila Mountain range, bridging between the Vitisha and Rila Mountains (the high ridge in the distance). The first half of the day was beautiful meadow walking with lots of wildlife, but on the whole this was the only somewhat tedious stage of the hike, mainly because it grew very hot on that day and there is little or no water on this stage of the trail. Mrs. Orca crossing the Verila Mountains between Smilyo Shelter and Klisura, Five Mountains Trail, Bulgaria.
A much-graffitied Soviet-Era train still in service at the Yerevan Railway Station, Yerevan, Armenia.