Khor Virap

Khor Virap is the monastery built over the pit where Grigor Lusavorich — Gregory the Illuminator — was held for thirteen years, according to Armenian tradition, and that story is why people have come here for centuries. The site occupies one of the hills of Artaxata, the ancient city on the Ararat Plain. The Turkish border is close.

It was never only a shrine. The complex housed a theological seminary, and for a period it was the residence of the Catholicos, the head of the Armenian Church. Armenian tradition places the monastery-fortress in the 3rd century, in the district of Vostan Hayots in Ayrarat, one of the provinces of Greater Armenia. The Araks river runs past on the plain below, and the monastery stands on its left bank.

The other reason the site is known is what rises behind it: Mount Ararat, the mountain where, in the biblical account, Noah's ark came to rest after the flood.

This is a working religious site, not a museum. Service times and opening hours aren't fixed information we can give you here — ask locally, or check with the church before you plan around a particular hour.

Khor Virap is in Ararat marz (province), roughly 34 km south of Yerevan in a straight line. The nearest town is Artashat, about 8 km to the north; the monastery itself sits out on the plain near the village of Lusarat.