The Cemetery of Giants at the Foothills of Mount Ara – Armenia

Mount Ara is an extinct volcano located in the Aragatsotn Province, Armenia, between Hrazdan and Kasakh Rivers. At its foothills resides the village of Yeghvard, which is known for its ancient graves of giants described in the late 18th century by Artemius of Ararat.

Artemius described his journey to the village in a book “Life of Artemius of Ararat”, which was published back in 1813. He visited the foothills of Mount Ara at the end of the 18th century. This is how he described his trip:

“On my way home, I wanted to see my brother. For that, I left my mother alone and went to Yeghvard. In several versts [an old Russian unit of length, 1 verst equals 1.066 km or 0.66 mi] from the village, I saw numerous tombstones that were 7-9 arshins high [4.9 – 6.3 m or 16.1 –  20.7 ft.]. I asked one young fellow from Yeghvard to guide me and show those rarities.

He agreed with my request, so we lagged behind of others and went to the site, that is, the ancient cemetery called Ogus, which means giant or place of giants.

There has been a large city here in antiquity. Its graves are unusually large: one of them was two sazhens long (4.32 m or 14.2 ft.). My companion showed me the bones of the individual buried there. The radial bone was about 1 arshin long (0.7 m or 2.3 ft.), while his tibia was waist-high. You could imagine the whole size of that individual by just those bones.

During a closer examination of those perishable remains of the fortress and the gone power of the centuries, I stood still for several minutes, brooding. As we carried on our way towards the village, I was occupied by reasoning the perishability of everything existing, the vanity, and the insignificance of the human nobility and pride.”

If the approximations of the author were right, then the height of the ancient giant was about 4 meters (13 feet).

by Armen Petrosyan

Ara ler – 4k