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VI
ACROSS THE ARAK PLAIN AND IN ERIVAN
With our experience of Oriental punctuality wc did not
expect to see the motor-cars very early on the following
morning (Thursday, June iBth), and thought there was no
particular hurry about getting ready. Great was my surprise,
therefore, when on looking down from the balcony at 5 a.m!
I saw two cars waiting below in front of the entrance to the
hotel. Wc hastily dressed, and before six o’clock set off, in
company with the Armenian engineers, in four different cars.
First wc drove through the town, then down the ravine of
the Zanga between steep crags with the town and its fortifica
tions built on the edge above our heads. An ancient stone
bridge takes one across the river, after which the road ascends
again on the other side. Wc drove past a number of luxuriant
green orchards and vineyards, surrounded by high stone walls
which prevented us from seeing much of them from the road.
These were the celebrated gardens of Erivan, conjured up
from this stony volcanic soil by artificial irrigation. Now
and then one of the channels of running water passed under
neath the roadway.
Wc motored on westwards across the plain. It was a
bright, cloudless morning, and from the sunny sky wc could
hear the familiar sound of several larks joyously trilling. The
land on the left ofthe road was mostly cultivated and irrigated ;
but all the land on our right, which rose in undulating slopes
towards the north, looked like an arid, scorched desert. And
this close to the capital ! Wc passed Echmiadzin, where there
are several fine churches. This place has been the intellectual
capital of Armenia for many centuries, and the seat of the
Katholikos, or primate of the Church. Wc were to return
to it later on.
The road now went southwards, continuing across the flat
plain towards the Arax. Mount Ararat reared its vast bulk
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