Hello my dear friends,

Today I want to present you my dearest and adorable hometown YEREVAN - the Capital of Armenia, in which I was born, grew up and live up to now!

To tell the truth this task is very pleasant but at the same time very difficult for me, because I really feel a huge responsibilty on myself because it is my hometown and many of you are going to get acquainted with it for the first time, so I have to do my best to present my city as good as I can.

Let us start and let me introduce you my CITY, MY sunny, friendly and very hospitable YEREVAN with our dearest mountain ARARAT at the background



He is very glad to meet you, hope you too

Since my city YEREVAN is really a very old one (actually it is one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities) and this year it will celebrate its 2796 anniversary, I have decided to start my presentation with a kind of historic introduction.

The history of Yerevan dates back to the 8th century BC, when the fortress of Erebuni was founded in 782 BC by king Argishti at the western extreme of the Ararat plain.


These are the remains of the above mentioned fortress of Erebuni, which nowadays serves a s a historic museum.


After World War I, Yerevan became the capital of the First Republic of Armenia after thousands of survivors of the Armenian Genocide settled there. During the 20th century Armenia became part of the Soviet Union and Yerevan was transformed from a provincial town to Armenia's principal cultural, artistic, and industrial center, as well as the seat of the national government.

Up to present many chroniclers argue about the origin of the name YEREVAN. Some of them believe that it was derived from the name of one of the Armenian kings - Yervand IV, others state that it originated from the name of this same fortress of Erebuni

But there is another point of view, according to which the origin of the name is connected to one of the expression of Noah.

It is believed, that while looking in the direction of Yerevan, after the ark had landed on Mount Ararat and the flood waters had receded, Noah exclaimed, "Yerevats!" (which means "it appeared!" in Armenian)

So here it is


Now let us pass to the most important and my favourite sightseeings and places worth visiting in Yerevan

The first one is ofcourse the HEART of YEREVAN - the Republic Square!!!!

The Armenians like to call it the guest house of Yerevan. It's built of pink tuff (Armenian traditional stone) and has a huge carpet image made from stones right in the middle of the square. (You can see it in the picture above). This place is always beautiful and interesting but especially in the evenings it gets more crowdy and lively because of the evening program called 'singing and dancing fountains.' They play very loud music of different styles starting from classical to jazz and traditional Armenian music.There are bright and cloroful lights that start from the fountains and change with the rithm; the water streams also change their shapes with the music. The whole show is very entertaining and fun plus it is really beautiful.

If you come to Yerevan in summer time you should definitely check this show out.

And here is how the Republic Square looks at night!!! Isn't it beautiful???



Next comes Cascade Complex



It was built in 1970s and it represents a huge stairway linking Yerevan center to the Haghtanak Park (Victory Park). Inside the Cascade there is an escalator equal to the length of the complex and it is a perfect option for those who don’t love climbing the stairs. The Complex also has the Cafesjian Museum of Art inside.

It is one of my most favourite places in Yerevan, and not only mine that is why it is always full of both native people and visitors and tourists. And it is natural because it is a great place to relax, to watch and enjoy the beauty of its architecture, or just to hug your beloved one and imagine there is no one else in this world beside you two

Cascade at night!



View from cascade!



Next comes my moooost favourite place in Yerevan - The Opera house, or the Opera Building, designed by renowned architect Alexander Tamanian, which comprises the Aram Khachaturian Hall and the Alexander Spendiarian Opera and Ballet National Academic Theater.




For me it is beautiful during all seasons of the year as well as both at night time and day time, and you will see why!!!


You will ask me - ok, it is a beautiful building, so what? why do you like it so much??? I will tell you why - I live in just 1 minute time from it, I can say that I grew in the Opera house, because of a long construction in our yard I had no place to play at, so very often I went to the Opera house - there I learned to skate, to ride the bycicle, the place I fell down skating for the first time, the place we came with my classmates when we ran from the classes for the first time and hundreds of such memories.... Now you see how important and memorable this place is for me?

It is the place where I feel at home, I feel relaxed and somehow free, the place I go to seat and think about life ...

And of course I couldn't forget about the Northern Avenue which is a pedestrian avenue, which opened in 2007. It is located in the central part of the city and links the Abovyan street with the Freedom Square (the square of the Opera House) on Tumanyan street. It has a length of 450 metres and a width of 27 metres.

Located in the heart of Yerevan, the avenue is mainly home to luxurious residential buildings, elite brand shops, business centres, coffee shops, restaurants and night clubs.

Here it is


ANd this is how it looks from the above

There are still many places to mention in Yerevan, for example our numerous museums, churches, monuments, etc, but I don't want this post to be too long, that is why I will just include some of the pictures


The prievious two pictures present Karapi lich (Swan lake), situated near the Opera House.


ANd this is the National Art Museum, situated at the Republic Square

And this is me having walk along the Night Yerevan, which I must confess I like more, because it is much brighter, much more attractive, much more interesting and appealing!!!


By the way these pictures were taken last year during the celebration of the 2795th anniversary Erebuni- Yerevan

So this is my Yerevan, full of contrasts, because it combines both ancient and modern, old and new, traditional and adopted things, it is small but it has its proud and strong place in the history! It is my HOMETOWN and I am proud to be born here



To conclude I would like to share with you a very good video about Yerevan, I found in youtube, it represents all those places I mentioned and even more. And as they say -" it is much better to see something with your own eyes at least once, rather than hear about it 100 of times".



So please enjoy and thank you very much for your attention!!!!

Yours sincerely,
Dinka
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