Our school is still closed. The state funeral will be on Sunday. Prime Minister will lie in state on Saturday. All other information is very limited. We will try to attend both events and report back. The enthronement of the new leader of the Armenian Church has been postponed until Thursday. Most Americans will be leaving on Monday, so there might be a chance we will be able to attend that ceremony.

Since things are slow at school, our hosts took us on a tour of some very close historic Armenian sites. With the assistance of Ruben Gregoryan’s brother Michael, we drove out of the city. As we left the city limits, we were stopped by military MP’s and the car was searched for weapons. Not a state of normalcy yet. This did not surprise our hosts. They said routine stops in normal times are not uncommon. We continued a few miles further and once again were stopped. Another search of the car took place. Ms Merilos took out the camera and was stopped in taking a picture of this situation. We had to prove to them that we had not taken any pictures. She felt that they really wanted to see the technology and we did not feel threatened by their action.

On we went to the Roman ruins of Garni. The temple there was in very good condition and there was a dig site of the Roman Baths near the temple. 

Upon looking at the geography of the area, we could see why construction took place here. The river below and the mountain pass would have been an excellent transportation route for the Roman flow of good and military. 

When looking to the south we saw snow on Mt. Ararat. 

We than proceeded to Geckhart. The site is important for the Armenian Apostolic Church. At this site St Gregory the Illuminator, converted king Tiridates III and he then proclaimed that Christianity would be the official religion of the state in 301 A.D. This is 12 years before Constantine of Rome would make Christianity official in the all of the Roman Empire.

The church at this site was built during the Middle Ages. It is carved into the side of the mountain. It is very dark inside the church and atmosphere is somber.

Visitor purchase candles and offer prayers for their health or other intentions.

The caretaker was very helpful to our hosts in explaining the different sections of the church. In one of the sections was a flowing well, that was used as holy water for the faithful. This was truly a Medieval experience.

We returned to the city to walk and find out the news of the day. For people from a culture of too much information when tragedy strikes, this lack of public information is unsettling. As previously stated, our main link to information is the Internet.

Tomorrow is Sunday Oct 31, so we will report all the happenings on Monday.