YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 25, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s tourism sector is trying to gradually recover following the difficulties of 2020. Although COVID-19 has not been completely eliminated yet, this year the tourism season in Armenia will be full of festivals, also taking into account the new realities.
Armenia: Ancient Monasteries, Warm Hospitality, and a Rich Cuisine
The early-morning sun casts long shadows as it illuminates Armenia’s Garni Temple. With its colonnades and position atop a rocky outcrop, the 1,900-year-old building is reminiscent of the Parthenon in Athens.
Inside the grey-stone temple, a man plays a
duduk, a woodwind instrument made from the wood of an apricot tree. With impressive acoustics, the temple’s austere interior seems tailor-made for such a performance.
This Greco-Roman temple at Garni has pagan origins and was originally built to honor the sun god, Mihr. However, today, Armenia is known as being one of the
White wine has been enjoyed for more than 3,000 years
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The Ancient Story of Wine
Both France and Italy are renowned for their wine production; some of the finest wines come from the Bordeaux, Burgundy, Piedmont, Sicily, and Emilia-Romagna regions. But these are not where the earth first brought forth wine grapes. Archeological evidence points to an area between the Caucasus and Zagros Mountains in Europe, an area that spans the countries we know today as Azerbaijan, Georgia, northern Iran, and Turkey.
Some food historians have quibbled over which came first, wine or beer? When you consider the process, wine must have been the first. Wine production (I’m not specifying good wine) requires no human intervention. (Even apes in the wild seek out past-their-prime fruits.) Grape juice encounters wild yeast and fermentation happens. Beer production is much more complicated. However, the deliberate domestication of wine-producing vines would not have been possible within a nomad