Karapadzor

Karapadzor is a canyon carved by the Arpa river in Vayots Dzor, running about 12 km between the villages of Arpi and Areni. Depths range from 40 to 150 meters, and geologists class it as an antecedent valley — one where the river cut down through rock that was rising beneath it, rather than finding a path around. The slopes are steep and bare, built from sedimentary layers of limestone and sandstone, with patches of badlands and karst features (sinkholes and channels dissolved into the limestone) worked into the rock.

A roughly 4-km stretch of the Arpa still carries the Karapadzor name, running down to the crossroads at present-day Aghavnadzor village. The terrain here was rough enough that no vehicle road existed through this part of the gorge until the 1960s. The section of the M-2 highway that now runs through Karapadzor was built after 1960.

The gorge lies in Vayots Dzor region, near the village of Areni, about 78 km southeast of Yerevan in a straight line.