Mount Lalvar

Mount Lalvar stands at 2,544 m, the highest point of the Virahayk mountain group in Lori region, near Alaverdi. Its summit is flat, in places gently undulating rather than a single peak.

One local legend ties the mountain to Noah's Ark: the Ark first tried to land on Lalvar, but the mountain said it was too small and modest for that honor, deferring to its "sister" Aragats. The Ark passed over anyway, its base scraping the summit flat.

The 5th-century historian Yeghishe records that Ashusha, bdeshkh (border-province governor) of Gugark (a historic Armenian province), freed the children of Armenian princes held prisoner in Tizbon (Ctesiphon) and brought them back to Gugark. Among them were the children of Vardan Mamikonian and the Kamsarakan princes, who hunted on Lalvar's slopes and trained there for war — Vahan Mamikonyan among them, a figure who later left a lasting mark on Armenian history. The same slopes are linked to the kingdom of Sedua, named in an Urartian inscription found at Lichk, and later saw fighting during the Armenian-Georgian war.

Lalvar sits in Lori region, near the town of Alaverdi in Armenia's north, about 109 km north of Yerevan as the crow flies.