Armenia

Discover Armenia

Fun Foods

Khorovats, Harissa, Lahmajun, Gata

Yerevan was founded in 782 BCE, which means it's older than Rome by nearly 30 years. Armenia's capital has been standing on the same spot for almost 3,000 years, watching empires rise, fall, and get replaced by new ones that also eventually crumbled.

The streets you walk in Yerevan today have seen Persians, Romans, Arabs, Mongols, Ottomans, and Soviets all come through. But Armenia itself survived all of them, partly because in 301 AD it became the world's first Christian nation.

King Tiridates III had thrown a man named Gregory the Illuminator in prison for refusing to worship pagan gods. When the king fell seriously ill, his sister dreamed that only Gregory could heal him.

Gregory cured the king, the royal family converted to Christianity, and the entire nation followed. The Armenian Apostolic Church has been central to Armenian identity ever since.

That Christian identity made Armenians targets in the Ottoman Empire. In 1915, during World War I, Ottoman authorities began systematically killing Armenians.

On April 24, they arrested 250 intellectuals and leaders. Over the next eight years, 1.5 million Armenians died through massacres, death marches, and deliberate starvation.

By 1923, virtually all Armenians had disappeared from Ottoman territories. April 24 became Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, when Armenians worldwide honor the victims and push for global recognition of what happened.

Armenia joined the Soviet Union in 1922 and stayed under Soviet control until 1991, when the USSR collapsed and Armenia regained independence. But freedom didn't mean peace.

Conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh has caused decades of fighting. In 2023, Azerbaijan forced 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee their homes.

Lavash, thin flatbread baked against clay oven walls, has UNESCO recognition as cultural heritage. Street corners in Yerevan smell like khorovats, Armenian barbecued meat. Dolma, grape leaves stuffed with rice and meat, shows up at every family gathering.

Try chanakh, crumbly cheese similar to feta, or creamy lori cheese wrapped in lavash with fresh herbs. Armenian cuisine blends influences from Iran, Syria, and Lebanon with South Caucasus traditions.