Yerevan Lake (Yerevan, Armenia) – detailed description, location, reviews, photos and videos.
In 1966, the Hrazdan River, flowing through the Armenian capital, was dammed, resulting in the formation of a reservoir that is more commonly referred to as the Yerevan Lake or even the sea. Ten years later tragedy befell here – in autumn a trolleybus fell from the dam and 92 passengers were swept away. At that very moment, Shavarsh Karapetyan, a multiple USSR and European champion in scuba diving, was running by, the only person who could have helped them. Without thinking twice, he dove down and found the trolleybus, broke the glass and pulled 47 people to the surface. The hero was awarded a medal and named after him an asteroid.
What to see
The water in Lake Yerevan is cold and quite dirty even in summer, but the beach is not empty in the heat. A trolleybus to the airport runs along the shore past the monument to Soviet Fleet Admiral I. S. Isakov. Behind the U.S. Embassy by the road, a split red pyramid of the Statue of Gratitude rises. It was erected in gratitude to the Arabs who took in thousands of Armenian refugees fleeing the Turkish massacres early last century. Nearby, the domes of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross gleam in gold.
On the opposite bank, the ruins of Shengavit settlement, an archaeological monument of the Bronze Age, were excavated. Jewelry, dishes, arrowheads, stone tools of the Neolithic period were found. The items are exhibited in the Shengavit Museum, a branch of the “Erebuni” Historical and Archaeological Museum-Reserve.
Practical information
Address: Yerevan, Shengavit. GPS coordinates: 40.160611, 44.478611.
How to get there: take the metro to “Garegin Nzhdeh Square” station, then walk 1.5 km or take trolleybus #15 to “Yerevan Lake” stop.
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