Khor Virap

Khor Virap

Khor Virap is a monastery built in the 17th century in southwestern Armenia, next to the village of Lusarat in Ararat province, on the left bank of the Araks River near the Turkish border. From the Armenian side, the monastery is set against the backdrop of the nearby Ararat, the national symbol of the Armenians, once on Armenian land, now rising in Turkish territory. Khor Virap is one of the most sacred and visited places in Armenia, mainly because Saint Gregory the Illuminator, who was imprisoned in the dungeons of Khor Virap for 13 years before he succeeded in converting King Tiridates the Great to Christianity in the first decades of the 4th century AD. In the Middle Ages, Khor Virap was a center of education and learning. Despite a massive earthquake in 1679, is still a place of pilgrimage. The monastery attracts a lot of tourists, who are very interested in the doves released from Khor Virap, which hopefully fly to Mount Ararat.