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NEW PLANS FOR IRRIGATION 199
dessiatins (about 12,500 acres) can be irrigated. The slopes
towards the north-east can be transformed by irrigation into
splendid vineyards, orchards, or fields of wheat, while the
lower lands will do well for cotton or tobacco growing.
The southern end of this dry region is watered by the river
Garni-chai, which comes from the mountains in the east.
Here there are trees and green fields and luxuriant gardens,
showing what the country may become, once it is irrigated.
On this river stood the town of Dvin, which, prior to the
days of Ani, was for long the most important town in Armenia,
wherethe Katholikos residedfor more than fourhundred years
(circa 462-931), after moving first from Ashtishat and then
from Vagharshapat. In this neighbourhood must also have
been the site of Armenia’s oldest capital, Artashat (or Arktax
ata). Higher up the river was the stronghold of Garni, said
to have been built by the powerful King Tiridates the Great.
Near the latter can still be seen remains of a fine Greek marble
temple, which, according to the Armenian historian Moses
of Khorene (sixth century ?) was erected by King Tiridates
in the third century a.d. in honour of his sister Khosrovidukht,
but which in reality seems to date from a somewhat earlier
time.1 Near the temple are the ruins of a palace. Even in
those days, therefore, and doubtless far earlier still, this part
of the country was cultivated and the river used for irrigation.
On the way home wc saw just south of Erivan a big caravan
serai, with a spacious square yard surrounded by high stone
walls. Here the camel caravans stop on their way from
Tabriz and Persia. Wc moderns, who dash about from
place to place in our motor-cars, what good do wc do by
it? After all, those slow, silent caravans which plodded
step by step across the desert used to carry the world-trade
of the East.
In the afternoon wc drove out to North-west Kirr, west
of the Zanga Valley. From a watch-tower at a small military
or police station on a hill wc had a wide view of this stretch
of country, which slopes in a south-westerly direction towards
the depression through which the river Abaran-su flows,
and towards the plain of Echmiadzin. Wc could indulge
Cf. Strzygowski, op. eit., vol. t, pp. 342 ff-
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