Van-Tosp – The Foundation of Armenia – The Heart of Our Country

From the northeast, one of the two largest rivers feeding Lake Van – Berkri (Bandimahi to the Kurds) flows into the lake. It originates from the Tsahkants (Aladag) mountains, gathering strength with the help of numerous tributaries, irrigating the vast Abaga plain, and falls into the lake at its extreme northeastern corner.

At the mouth of Berkri, where the village of Karahan is now located, there used to be the city of Arestavan with one of the main fishing ports of Van before the rise of the waters of the lake. Here was the center for the extraction of the famous Van tarekh – this endemic fish of Van was one of the main items of Armenian medieval export, and the port where its extraction and processing was concentrated was called Dzknateank Arkunakan (Place of Royal Fishery).

28 km upstream from the mouth of Berkri, at the confluence with the right tributary Uda, is the famous Berkri waterfall – one of the most powerful and beautiful in Armenia.

Seven kilometers downstream, the river breaks through a natural karst rock tunnel – Satan’s Kamurdj (Devil’s Bridge), and another four kilometers downstream is the eponymous city of Berkri, now called Muradiye. Opposite the city, on the right bank of Berkri, in the harsh southern foothills of the Ardorik mountains, where many Vishap stones with cuneiform inscriptions (Odzakarer) are preserved, there are three Van monasteries – Argelana Surb Astvatsatsin, Surb Stepanos or Ter-Uscan Vordu, and Dzoravank (not to be confused with another Dzoravank near the city of Van).

All three monasteries were previously part of the gavar of Arberani ashkhara of Vaspurakan of Greater Armenia, in the Middle Ages – part of the gavar of Kadjberunik, and in modern times – the gavar of Berkri of the Van naanga.

The Argelana Surb Astvatsatsin Monastery is built on a high rocky ledge, around it there are caves where monks hid in case of danger – because of them, the temple was often called Argelana Karandzav. Like the higher located monastery of Surb Stepanos, Argelana was built by Stepanos Uscan Vordi (son of Voskan), and to differentiate the temples, they were called Lower and Upper (Vari and Veri).

Stepanos and his son are buried in the courtyard of the Upper (Surb Stepanos). Both monasteries are made of hewn stones, both were destroyed in the 19th-20th centuries. Starting from 1251, dozens of Armenian manuscripts were created and copied in Argelana Surb Astvatsatsin, which had extensive lands.

In the vicinity of the Dzoravank Monastery, located a little further west from the first two monasteries, the villages of Veri and Vari Dzor (Upper and Lower Gorges, now distorted – Sor) originated from the early Middle Ages and grew over time. The mentioned Vishap stones, or Odz-Karer, are scattered in the gorges and hills around Dzoravank.

On many of these stones, the oldest cuneiform scripts and letters are carved, on one of them, for example, an inscription of the Van (Urartian) King Menua I was found. The monastery itself, like thousands of others, in the Middle Ages was one of the centers of Armenian culture and literacy. The surroundings of the city of Berkri and the three described monasteries, like any other corner of Armenia, are literally teeming with monuments of Armenian antiquity and the oldest toponyms, preserving traces of the beginning of times.

Thus, the city of Arestavan has preserved the name of one of the countries of the oldest Nairi – Aristan, the village of Arnist, located west of Dzoravank, bears the name of the ancient country Arnia, and the village of Bia, located south on the road to Van, bears the name of the country of Biayna (one of the variants of Urartu). Here, south of the mouth of Berkri, on the outskirts of the Berkri plain (in ancient times – Arestakohmn Dasht) are large and significant villages of the gavar Arberani-Berkri: this is the famous Gortsot, as well as Ynkuzek or Anguzak, and Surb Tatos with the Surb Tadevos monastery.

Near the latter was located one of the Urartian cities dedicated to the god Khaldi – Khald Astco Kahak. West of these villages, on the very shore of Van, is the village of Baz or Panz (in ancient times the city of Asurbaza). From the Berkri plain to the southwest to the city of Van itself, a province called Timar stretches (this is a shortened version of the name Tiramayr – this is how the name of the Mother of God sounds in Armenian, the cult of which is one of the most common in Armenian Christianity).

The province got its name from the Yncaits Surb Astvatsatsin monastery (Holy Mother of God’s Treasury) or Hatun Tiramayr, located near the village of Norshen on the northeastern shore of Van, directly opposite the island of Lim. This monastery is more known as Spitak Vank (White) or Asparacin (Shield-bearing). This monastery had only one church with a dome made of white stone.

According to legend, on the site of the Asparacin monastery was one of the oldest temples or shrines of Armenia, destroyed in the 4th century by the apostle Thaddeus. In the church laid on the site of the ancient sanctuary, the apostle walled up the Mother of God’s head veil – lachak, brought by him to Armenia, due to which the monastery began to be called Yncaits Surb Astvatsatsin. Another Tiramayr church was located 9 km south of Norshen, in the village of Srbatun (Holy House).

Over time, the village began to be called Verin Timar after its church, now the Kurds call it Pir-Karib – the prefix Pir with the meaning of Saint goes back to the ancient Armenian Bir, Bra, Para (Brashen, Bradjur, Parakar – “ancient”, “fossil”, over time – “glorious”, “great”). And the root Karib, like the Armenian name Garib, came from the ancient Armenian Karb, Karbi (again with the meaning “most ancient”).

In the early Middle Ages, the Timar province was part of the Vaspurakan provinces of Arberani, Bogunik and Palunik. Here, on the eastern shore of the Lake Van isthmus, opposite the Vichkatsruk peninsula, is the famous fortress of Kar Amko or Amyuk, and a little further south rises to 2336 meters above sea level (the lake surface lies at an altitude of 1646 meters) the Tsatsanakamar (Rainbow Arch) mountain range with the peaks Surb Saak and Khachkatar, where the surrounding Armenians celebrated the Ambarzum (Holy Ascension) festival.

On the shore of Van at the foot of Mount Surb Saak, named after Saak Partev, there is a large village of Ererna (Ererin or Dagon), where the monasteries of Ererna Surb Saak Partev (or Khachgluh) and Ererna Bazeniс Surb Ejmiatsin are located. Both monasteries were large and well-kept in the Middle Ages, with extensive estates, gardens, both were centers of Armenian writing.

Further south on the shore of Van is the ancient cyclopean masonry fortress of Ayanis or Plats Berd (Fallen Fortress), near which the village of Akhyants (Agarti) grew. Here, in the Bogunik province of the Vaspurakan region of Greater Armenia, at the foot of Mount Vank (Monastic, among the Kurds Ziarat) lies one of the largest and most significant Timar villages – Alyur, with two monasteries Surb Gevorg (or Karmir Vank) and Surb Astvatsatsin, which are together called Alra Vanker. Alrots Surb Astvatsatsin was built no later than the turn of the 12th-13th centuries, a khachkar from 1214 is built into its north wall, made by the master Ovannes Gtsoh. Armenian historian Arakel Davrizhetsi testifies that these monasteries, which made up a single complex, were destroyed by an earthquake in 1648.

Other Timar monasteries include Khlavank or Aver Vank near the village of Kusatan in the Palunik province, Drsi Tun monastery (Outdoor House) on the Ktuts peninsula, which served as a suburb of the island monastery of Ktuts, the Atnakants or Ablakonts monastery in the eponymous, now ruined village.

Another ten or twenty kilometers to the south – and we are in one of the most ancient, known and significant cities of Armenia – Van, founded in the middle of the third millennium before Christ by Ayk Naapet not far from the place of his battle with Bel, at the mouth of the Ankusner river, around Mount Khorkhor, where the ancient Van fortress is located.

Van and the surrounding villages – Avants, Zrvandants, Sxga, Dzorovants, Akhavank, Kohbants, Shushants, Kotants, Krapasht (Kurupash), Kendanants, as well as those located a little further away Tsuvstan, Berdak, Yervandunik (Eritunik, Doni), Biri and the famous Varagavank (Edikilise) – are the province Van-Tosp of the Vaspurakan region of Greater Armenia, the heart of our country, its foundation.

by Grigor Beglaryan

Translated by Vigen Avetisyan