Color Photographs of Armenia
Fiery Sunset at Gndevank
Sunset at Gndevank Monastery... Our extended stop at Gndevank was one of the most memorable during my July 2017 trip to Armenia. We had left Sisian in the early afternoon, had a late lunch at a riverside restaurant, and braved the neglected and dilapidated road leading to this ancient gem of the Gndevaz River gorge.
I climbed atop the mostly renovated monastic cells, found a single serviceable chair and plenty of room on the flat roof to move about. For at least an hour, I sat absorbing the landscape to the south, the barely visible sliver of the Gndevaz river, now in shadow, the glowing walls of the gorge to the east, the orchard that spread across a spur of flat land to my left… It was peaceful beyond imagination... Birdsong filled the narrow valley, and the only other sounds breaking my reverie were the comings and goings of the monks themselves, preparations for prayer, herding flocks of goats, then cows, yelled admonishments to each other for running barefoot across the courtyard, and the occasional greeting of a visitor in this far flung place.
As the evening wore on, two banks of clouds began to spread across the sky from the west: those speeding southward were gorgeous, doing their best to internally reflect the reds and golds of sundown, while the mass slowly marching northward absorbed the sunlight and reflected only dark grays. Standing atop the roof of the monastic cells, I was treated for more than thirty minutes to a glorious sunset unfolding in slow motion, the clouds changing color every minute and framing the monastery with wings of fire. As the sun sank behind the high hill to the west, the sky caught fire again just as a young visitor to the monastery, one who would have gladly joined the eight already living there, took up song in the church of St. Stepanos, filling the valley with his stunningly beautiful, almost contralto, voice. Photographed July 2017 in the Vayots Dzor Province of Armenia.
