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About Mount Ararat
And
the waters on the Earth gradually lowered, and in one hundred and fifty days,
the waters decreased.
And on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the Noah Arc settled on Mount
Ararat.
Bible, Genesis 8.3
State
Engineering University of Armenia is situated in Yerevan which is about 2800
years old.
This
ancient town, a coeval with Babelon and Karphagen was founded by the emperors
of Urartu in the 7th century B.C. and was called Erebuni. Later
it was renamed Yerevan.
For
thousands of years Erebuni-Yerevan played an important role in the economic,
political and social life of Armenian people. In 7- 9th
centuries, as a result of conquests and destructive total wars, the process
of the development of Armenian society, the formation of Armenian culture and
the government were sometimes
interrupted for hundreds of years. However, each time the broken bonds
were restored.
The
development of Armenian society and Yerevan started at the beginning of the
last century when the town became the centre of Armenian government and an urban
centre.
At
present, Yerevan is a big and
beautiful city situated on Ararat plain and
the adjacent heights with steep slopes.
Visitors have an opportunity to walk about Urartu fortress, obtain educational services at SEUA, take photos against biblical Ararat, look through the manuscripts of the early Christianity, taste the drinks and dishes cooked according to century- old-receipts.
Yerevan
is a town of more than 80 museums. The manuscripts written since the year of
the invention of the Armenian alphabet (405) have been collected, kept and examined
in one of these museums – Matenadaran.
Matenadaran is one of the oldest and the richest libraries in the world going
back the beginning of the 5th century.
The collection in Matenadaran consists of more than 17000 manuscripts concerning
different spheres of Old and Middle Ages Armenian culture and science: history,
philosophy, medicine, grammar, geography, law, cosmography, alchemy, chemistry,
literature, art, music, theatre, as well as the manuscripts in Arabian, Persian,
Greek, Aramaic, Latin, Ethiopian, Japanese and other languages.
Most of the manuscripts are illustrated with highly artistic miniatures of different
Armenian art schools from Mediterenian Kilikia to Gharabagh.
Matenadaran is not only a museum open to visitors but also a research centre
engaged in studying, keeping and publishing manuscripts.
Great
architectural Alexander Tamanyan
The
appearance of Yerevan, its buildings and architectural forms are mainly the
activity result of the great architect Alexander Tamanyan, the founder of contemporary
Armenian architecture who worked out the general plan of the city.
Tamanyan was for the wide usage of classical Armenian architectural heritage
as well as European standards of building and humanization of urban environment.
As a result of his activity and the development of creative work of his legacy,
a united architectural style has been established, and contemporary Armenian
architecture has been formed.
According
to Alexander Tamanyan’s conception the principle of the “city – garden” was
applied to the formation of urban surroundings. The main idea of this principle
is the formation of convenient surroundings possessing a direct visual connection
with the environment based on planting
greenery and water surface systems.
Contemporary
Armenian architecture and the building of Yerevan are characterized by the wide
use of natural stone (mainly volcanic tuff with its106 colours and hues) the
application of arches and domes as well as the architectural planning and spatial
decisions in combination with the plasticity of particular parts and façade
stone decoration.
In
the history of Armenian people, viticulture and wine-making have been one of
the basic occupations of peasantry. Grapes and wine have entered the epos and
literature. The pictures of grapes and their processing can be met on numerous
architectural monuments coming from ancient kingdoms to nowadays.
The influence of the sun and stone soil as well as the traditional high level
of processing gives an opportunity to grow wonderful sorts of grapes in Armenia.
Sometimes the sugar contained is 30%.
These grapes as well as oak wood are the raw material for producing high-quality
wine and Armenian brandy with unique features of dark gold and strong aroma
of vanilla and rose.
Churches
and chapels built in the Middle Ages as well as nowadays are situated in different
places in Yerevan, on the territory of housing estates, on the reference marks
of highways and dominating heights of the town.
Aesthetic
solutions and constructive principles used at Armenian church building in the
area from the Mediterenian and the Black Seas to the Caspian Sea are the basis
of Armenian Architecture at all stages of its history.
As
a matter of fact, Armenian Architecture has started since the 4th
century when basilicas were replaced by the central dome composition of temples
which is a true Armenian type of temple architecture.
Since the 7th century the composition principles and constructive decisions have been applied to the interior design of Armenian churches, later on developed in Romanic and Gothic architectural monuments.
There
are numerous architectural historical monuments in the neighbourhood of Yerevan,
among which is an antique temple of the 1st century on the territory
of the fortress of Garni.
The
temple devoted to one of the Gods of Armenian pagan pantheon – Mitra, God of
the Sun, refers to the historical period when Armenia was under the influence
of Greek cultural tradition.
The
temple built of basalt and surrounded with 24 lonic columns is a picturesque
scene on the rocky triangle cape high above the River Azat. You get a good view
of deep canyons, fantastic cliffs and mountain ranges from here.
The
founder of contemporary Armenian painting, one of the greatest artists of the
20th century, Martiros Saryan created hundreds of works of art, graphics, theatre
decoration art.
Saryan’s art pieces is characterized by virtuous technique, metaphoric type
of picturesque thinking, decoration - style preferences, national palette, the
echoes of pantheist, specific for Armenian culture and philosophical- contemplation
perception of life.
While reproducing Armenia as a landscape, Saryan presented a world model with
expressed motives of continuous motions and endless space, using clean spectrum
tones, bright sunshine and calm shadows.
The
Armenian art of stone carving realized on the façade of buildings in
Yerevan has come from religious steles - cross-stones (khachkars) that are a
unique phenomenon in World Art History. Khachkar is covered with a thin ornament
with a gracefully decorated cross.
Primarily,
since the 5th century the cross-stones have symbolized Christian
ideals. Gradually, the range of their usage widened. Preserving their religious
meaning they were and are installed on different memorable occasions and as
tomb monuments.
There are reasons to think that the very khachkars, despite their limited abilities, have become the means of preservation and further development of Armenian cultural legacy.
Armenia map / Yerevan downtown / City plan / Campuses Map / 3-Dimension map
