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Ceiling

The Ceiling is nothing less than spectacular.

Details of the ceiling of the Entrance to Ejmiatsin Cathedral inside Ejmiatsin Monastary complex. The handwork and carving that has gone into making this celing and the entire enterance is nothing less than amazing.. as I have mentioned before in tips, a scorpion can be seen in one of the corners of the carvings on the ceiling.. History has it that the scorpion was spotted by the people working on the roof and painted over.. Hence the reason it exists at only one corner.. How much of that is true, I don't know.

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Inside Ejmiatsin Monastary

Ejmiatsin Cathedral and Monastary

The Ejmiatsin Monastary is one of the highly visited attractions of Armenia by tourists.. Besides the main Ejmiatsin Cathedral, it has many other buildings, some of which are theology schools for students learnning religion to become priests.. This picture is taken as we have entered through the gates walking towards the cathedral.

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Katholikos Grave outside Ejmiatsin Cathedral

Graves and Stones of Katholicos Outside Cathedral

Outside of the Ejmiatsin Cathedral, both the left and right of the enterance, there are stones and graves where Armenian Katholicos have been barried. They are sacred stones and many people place flowers at different times of the year on these stones..
This stones happens to be the grave site of the latest Katholicos who passed away, Holly Vazgen.

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Fountain within Ejmiatsin Monastary

Water Fountain inside Ejmiatsin Monastary

This water fountain is very dear to my wife, Christine. This photo was taken by the fountain as Christine's mother has taken a similar photo by this water fountain in Armenia some 30 years ago. Hence the significance of this gorgeous water fountain with Armenian text written on the stones and very cool water running at all times is a lot to my wife.

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Carved Tree inside Ejmiatsin Monastary

Carved Tree by the side of the Road

As we were waiting for a priest friend of the family to meet us inside the monastary for a special tour of the Ejmiatsin museum, I couldn't help but to notice the intricate carving and hand work that has gone through this natural live tree in the garden. The carving seems to be of one or two men. Decide for yourself :)

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Inside St. Gayane's Church

Inside St. Gayane's Church in Ejmiatsin

This picture is of the altar, where the priest stands inside St. Gayane's Church to carry on with the mass on Sundays. We were fortunate to witness a Christening of a little boy of some family while we visited the church. St. Gayane's Church is built over where history holds St. Gayane was martyred. It is smaller in size than Ejmiatsin Cathedral but still very impressive.
The walk from Ejmiatsin cathedral to St. Gayane's church was through a small dirt road. We wanted to take the shortest way possible. It took about 15 minutes to walk there.

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Ceiling inside St. Hripsime's Church in Ejmiatsin

Ceiling of St. Hripsime's Church

In the picture, you can see the typical ceiling seen in many of Armenia's churches all around the country. This picture was taken inside St. Hripsime's Church in Ejmiatsin. It is not quite as similar to the ceiling at Geghart Monastary since Geghart church was carved out of one giant stone, the side of a mountain and hence has a hole at the top for letting light inside the room. This church is ancient and you can sense and feel the old age by just wondering around inside the church. It is quite an amazing site.