Gegharkunik Marz

Gegharkunik Marz, comprised of the four former rayons of Sevan, Martuni, Vardenis, and Krasnosyelsk, is dominated by Lake Sevan and the watershed of the numerous streams that flow into it and out down the Hrazdan River to the Arax. The Marz also includes the separate basin of the Getik River, which flows N to the Aghstev and joins ultimately the Kura river in Azerbaijan. The Sevan basin is windswept, treeless and austere, but with stunning skies, an ever-changing lake surface, and a rich history. All around the lake are the tumbled stone remains of Bronze and Iron Age fortifications and towns, and little boulder clumps marking vast fields of prehistoric burials with superb burnished pottery. Lake Sevan enters recorded history with the Urartians. King Rusa I seems to have conquered the Sevan basin and made it the eastern frontier of the kingdom of Urartu sometime around 720 BC. A number of boundary markers of Artashes I written in Aramaic, the Middle Eastern lingua franca, show the presence of the Arsacid dynasty in Hellenistic times. In medieval times, Gegharkunik was dominated by the Dopian clan.

Several schools are reconstructed in Gegharkunik by the Armenian Educational Foundation.

Click reconstructed school icon for detailed information.