Located on the Ararat Plain and overlooking Mount Ararat, an hour's drive from capital Yerevan, this compact monastery is venerated as in a sense being the cradle of Armenian Christianity, as a 3rd/4th-century proselytizer named Gregory the Illuminator was imprisoned in Khor Virap's previous incarnation as a prison for 13 years before being released and eventually becoming instrumental in Armenia becoming the first nation to adopt Christianity as its state religion. Among other things visitors can see here is the chapel and the dungeon where Greg was stashed away.

Diego Delso