TOURINFO- Few people know that on the slope of the holy Mount Ararat, at an altitude of 2100 meters (about slightly lower than the middle of the mountain) are the ruins of the 5th-century Armenian basilica church.

In August 2004, during the ascent to Ararat by the route of Friedrich Parrot and Khachatur Abovyan (1829), V. Gurzadyan photographed the ruins of a church lying on the northwestern slope of Ararat at an altitude of 2,100 meters. It is among Armenian Church sites that are located the highest.
The church situated in a militarized and strictly guarded zone that is virtually inaccessible to foreigners. However, Gurzadyan along with his companion S. Aarseth from Cambridge received special permission to access the territory. Near the church, on the top of the hill are the ruins of a fortress, and on the hillsides are the ruins of dwellings. The church is built of large blocks of orange tuff. The remnants of the church’s eastern asides are preserved. It is striking that certain large sections of the walls lie at a distance of 5-8 m from the church, sometimes in an inverted position, (some of them are upside down) as if thrown away by a powerful earthquake. The existence of this church is not mentioned neither in Cuneo’s encyclopedic monograph nor in Alishan’s “Ayrarat” nor in Parrot’s description of his Ararat ascent with Abovyan. However, according to V. Harutyunyan, these are the ruins of an early-Christian single-nave church dating back to the 5th-6th centuries.