vahep.com A Cosmic Alignment in Armenia Photo Essay Page 2

A Cosmic Alignment
The photographic consequences of a visit to Armenia for a space science conference

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Page 2 of 18

Sunday, September 25, 2005, Continued

The first part of our road trip replicates that of my trip to Dilijan in April, until we turn off the highway to Sevan toward Gavar. Gago is extremely knowledgeable about the road we’re traveling and fills in several blanks as we drive to our first destination. The rock quarry I photographed last time, 22 km from home, provides fine sand for cement and is called the Djraber sand mine.

Trees flanking the road skirting Lake Sevan past Martouni, September 25, 2005

Our trip today will take us past Martuni and nearly to Vardenis, where we’ll veer off the highway and head to Makenis. We will then work our way back from Makenis, stopping in as many of the sites listed by Stepan as possible. I try to keep the number of stops outbound to a minimum, since the Sun, though not yet at its zenith, is not ideally placed for my photography. We pass the oft-photographed tunnel of trees just past Lchashen. The landscape is a surreal mixture of three elements: to the right of the road, rocks and sand that have obviously spent most of the last several eons submerged dominate the landscape. To the left, extending from the road to the lake’s edge are forests of varying thickness and composition, from conifers to poplars. The clash of the submerged and eroded landscape and the multi-hued forest is bridged by alpine fields, which I’m told are covered briefly with poppies, tulips, and other wildflowers in May.

Further down, the roadside opposite the lake rises up in steep, multi-layered cliffs that are good markers for the lake’s water level in the near and distant past. The cliffs are in shadow now, and require morning light, optimally.