Armenia lies on one of the many silk road routes between West Asia and Europe, and has experienced Mongol, Ottoman and Russian influence in addition to its own rule over thousands of years. Taking a route up the center of the country puts you on a silk road route, past Armenia’s largest lake, and into the high plateaus and gorges of the Lori region.

The Selim Caravanserai. Caravanserais were medieval-era way stations established along the silk road routes to provide safe overnight lodging and provisions for the supply teams. Many were established under the Ottoman Empire and can be seen from the Balkans to the Stans. Armenia has a number of them, the best-preserved being located just south of the crest of the Selim Pass at about 2,400 m. elevation, along the main route between Yeghezhnador and Lake Sevan.

Built around 1332 by Prince Chesar Orbelian – and also called Orbelian’s Caravanserai – it is a long rectangular basalt stone building with a stone slabbed roof. It has a single entrance to a large vestibule on the southeast side, with ornate carvings, including a griffin and a lion, and a lengthy inscription by Chesar dedicating the building in his family’s name and that of Armenia’s Mongol ruler of the time, Busaid Khan. Mongol rule in Armenia was under the Ilkhanate, which included modern-day Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey, and lasted from the mid-1200s until the 1330s, when the Black Death triggered its disintegration. Busaid Khan died in 1335, allegedly poisoned, although plague could have been the cause.

Inside, there is a long central hall, where pack animals were housed and fed, with partitioned spaces off to either side for the merchants and their goods, and skylights to provide some daytime lighting.

This must have been a welcome site for a 14th-century mule train working its way between Central Asia and southeast Europe. Restored in the 1950s, the high degree of preservation was in part possible because of the difficulty in carrying away the building’s stone blocks from such an isolated location.

Lake Sevan. Lake Sevan is Armenia’s largest lake and sole domestic seaside resort. If you are driving over the Selim Pass, you’ll see it as you descend. Heading north, the roads along the west side are most direct and in the best condition.

Passing north through Dilijan, you enter the northern and increasingly mountainous Lori Region. This visit was in late April, so there was plenty of cleansing rainfall.

The Mikoyans of Alaverdi. The post-industrial city of Alaverdi is interesting in part because it shows how Soviet-era industrial activity was jammed into narrow valleys, but also as the birthplace of the Mikoyan brothers – Anastas in 1895 and Artem in 1905. The Mikoyan Brothers Museum (https://goo.gl/maps/HjbGg16i2WD6EjQ69), established in the Soviet era but still very much a source of pride today, is worth a visit.

Anastas Mikoyan was a Bolshevik revolutionary from 1915 onwards and became a senior Soviet-era politician who joined the Politburo in 1935. A supporter of Stalin, he participated in and survived the purges to become Deputy Premier, involving himself in foreign affairs, before retiring in 1966.

Artem was an aeronautical engineer who founded the prolific Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau – now synonymous with the word “MiG” for a Russian fast jet aircraft – with Mikhail Gurevich, in 1939. While their early piston-engine designs weren’t successful, their first significant design was the world-beating MiG-15 jet fighter, admittedly powered by the British Rolls-Royce Nene engine. The engine was sold to the Soviets under a license in 1947, which probably ranks as one of the greatest intellectual property and security failures of all time. The MiG-15 went on to shock western air forces in the Korean War.

Needless to say, a MiG gets the top billing at the museum, where a two-seat trainer version of the MiG-21 is exhibited outside. This was one of MiG’s highest production models, that has served since 1959 with over 60 air forces.

The museum features memorabilia from two very busy lives and acknowledges the ethical lapses needed for Anastas to survive and thrive as a Soviet politician, particularly during the purges of the 1930s.

Debed Gorge. The Debed River runs north and then northeast from the hub of Vanadzor, past Alaverdi to the Georgian border.

Fans of disused Soviet-era factory buildings will have plenty to look at along the Debed River valley around Alaverdi.

Logistics. I stayed at the Tufenkian Dzoreget Hotel (https://tufenkianheritage.com/en/accommodation/avan-dzoraget-hotel), which is worth a stop in itself for it’s grand building and location next to the Debed River.

Northern Monasteries. Northern Armenia’s monasteries get less visits owing to their distance from Yerevan but were a very important part of political and spiritual life. In the next post, we look at the spectacular Haghpat and Akhtala monasteries.