The monastery is surrounded by green pasture lands and vineyards within the Ararat plain and is in view of Mount Ararat. The Arax (or Arakas) River flows close by, and the monastery is across from Aralık, Turkey.

Gnishik village is home to only a small handful families, whose total is barely over 15.

The monastery is best known for its two-storey Surb Astvatsatsin (Holy Mother of God) church. The gorge is known for its tall, sheer, brick-red cliffs, directly across from the monastery. 

Lunch - Armenian traditional food

Khndzoresk Bridge is one of the most interesting attractions Syunik province. The 160-meter long bridge weighting 14 tons connects the two banks of the village, the so-called Old and New Khndzoresk. Old Khndzoresk is famous as a cave settlement, where the village is located on both slopes of the mountain and inhabitant have used natural and artificial caves on those slopes as dwellings. An interesting fact is that the area used to be inhabited till the middle of the 20th century, and the New Khndzoresk was built in the 1950s.

Wings of Tatev is a 5.7 km cable way between Halidzor and the Tatev monastery in Armenia. It is the longest reversible aerial tramway built in only one section, and holds the record for Longest non-stop double track cable car. 

In the 14th and 15th centuries, the monastery hosted one of the most important Armenian medieval universities, the University of Tatev, which contributed to the advancement of science, religion and philosophy, reproduction of books and development of miniature painting

We walk in Yeghegis village for about 2 hours in total towards the church of St. Stepanos or Zorats (of the Army), is considered a fine relic of medieval Armenia. Its name comes allegedly from the custom of consecrating arms and horses there before battle.

Walk to Jewish cemetery which before belonged to the Jewish community which lived in Yeghegis in the 13th-14th centuries. No other historical evidence for the existence of this community is known, nor of contemporaneous Jewish communities in Armenia. About 40 tombstones survived in the cemetery and about another 30 were found nearby. 10 tombstones bear inscriptions in Hebrew or Aramaic.

Orbelian's Caravanserai also known as Selim Caravanserai is a caravanserai in the Vayots Dzor Province of Armenia. It was built along the Vardenyats Mountain Pass in 1332, by prince Chesar Orbelian to accommodate weary travelers and their animals as they crossed from, or into, the mountainous Vayots Dzor region.

The cemetery has the largest cluster of khachkars in Armenia. It is currently the largest surviving cemetery with khachkars following the destruction of the khachkars in Old Julfa, Nakhichevan by the government of Azerbaijan

Initially the monastery was built at the southern shore of a small island. After the artificial draining of Lake Sevan, which started in the era of Joseph Stalin, the water level fell about 20 metres, and the island transformed into a peninsula. At the southern shore of this newly created peninsula, a guesthouse of the Armenian Writers' Union was built.

Overnight in DIlijan forested city http://casanova-inn.hotelsofarmenia.com/en/