Travel guide Armenia

The achough (ashik "passionate" in Persian), also known as goussan, are these troubadours who criss-cross the provinces, perpetuating an oral tradition of epics and legends with or without music. Sayat-Nova, who composed in the 18th century in their languages for the princes of Georgia and emirs of Azerbaijan and Persia, is the greatest of the achough

This small flute, a rudimentary apricot tree branch with 9 holes and a reed mouthpiece, is the emblematic instrument of Armenian music. It originally provided musical accompaniment for shepherds in the solitude of the high plateaus. Its undisputed master is Djivan Gasparian who has accompanied pop stars such as Peter Gabriel.

"Hür", the guest; this is how we call the tourist, whom we make it a point of honour to treat as such, according to the criteria of a legendary hospitality, which may seem insistent in the countryside, where it is frowned upon to refuse to share the table that we propose to the guest. In Yerevan, hospitality follows more conventional forms.

Spikenard is considered to be the favorite pastime of Armenians. Nothing beats a game of nard (backgammon, trictrac or medieval jacket), also known by its Turkish name of tavlou, while sipping a glass of oghi. Armenian cafés often hold these games for their customers, usually men.

Traditional, flat and unleavened bread, prepared according to an ancient practice still in force, whose essential accessory is the tonir, an oven dug into the ground, on the walls of which these large wheat flour pancakes, thin as leaves, are baked. Lavache is omnipresent and is listed as an Intangible Heritage Site by UNESCO

The "Great Catastrophe", an elliptical term used in Armenian to refer to the genocide of 1915. American presidents borrowed it from the Armenians so that they would not have to use the angry word, genocide (which is translated into Armenian as tséghaspanoutioun), when they pay tribute to its victims on April 24 each year.

The "cross-stone" is one of the most expressive symbols of Armenian identity. Thousands of these rectangular stone stelae, decorated with ornate crosses and bas-reliefs, are scattered throughout the countryside, grouped together in cemeteries or at the foot of churches. A lapidary incarnation of the Armenian being, it is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Diaspora, or dispersion, the other half of the Armenian identity, living outside the ancestral territory since the massacres and deportations that emptied Western Armenia of its Armenian population in the years 1915 to 1922. The highly organised diaspora of 6 million Armenians maintains close links with Armenia.

Tuff is the Armenian stone par excellence. Of volcanic origin, tuff is most often red, black, pink or orange, and it covers most Armenian churches and monuments, to which it contributes to give them this characteristic and unique aspect. It is also to tuff that the capital, Yerevan, owes its nickname of "pink city"

The centre of monastic life, the monastery. If the presence of monks is attested in Armenia since the most remote times of Christianity, monastic complexes appeared later. The vank's heyday was in the 12th-13th centuries, during the reign of the Zakarians, exemplified by the superb monasteries of Haghbat and Sanahin.

A fabulous animal from Armenian mythology, dragon or snake, which disrupted the universal order before the god Vahagn overthrew it. Some vichap have survived in the mountains, in the form of archaic sculptures representing fish, dating from the megalithic period. Vichap are also an ornamental theme in Armenian carpets.

A religious and ethnic minority, speaking Kurmandji and practising a cult inherited from Zoroastrianism and Manicheism. A persecuted nomadic pastoralist people, they are settled in Armenia where they have found security that allows them to freely practice their religion. In 2018, they inaugurated the largest Yezidi temple in the world.