KHOSROV FOREST

The reserve extends between Garni (north) and Vedi (south). Game guards and foresters at the park entrance will inform you about this wooded and wilderness area. The animal bas-reliefs decorating the walls of the churches of nearby Geghard remind us that this region was the preferred site of the Armenian kings for their hunts. In antiquity, the lion was hunted there. The "Khosrov Forest" (Khosrovi Andar) is today one of the main nature reserves of Armenia. It was in the southern fringes of the Kegham Mountains that King Khosrov (or Khosroes) established his hunting reserve in the 4th century, creating a forest of oaks and pines and planting various animals. The great artificial forest will be abandoned after the fall of the fortress of Garni in the ^5th century, and will be reborn in the Middle Ages, also serving as a refuge from the Mongols. The remains of the castle of Guégui, where the Armenians who were defeated by the Mongols at Garni in 1225, are evidence of this. This 150 km² wooded area is protected, and access is highly regulated. There are two species of oaks, Oriental and Georgian, but also pines and wild fruit trees, where you can meet lynx, deer and other mouflons. With the authorization to visit the reserve, you can access the Khosrov forest by the Geghard road, but this route is reserved for lovers of high hiking, several peaks of the Kegham range exceeding 3,000 m (Ajdahak, 3,598 m). It is necessary to be well equipped, as scree slopes are frequent on this volcanic massif, and hide snakes. A guide is recommended: there are no refuges, and villages are rare. But the visit to the peaks, whose craters contain small lakes and snowdrifts, offers superb views of the entire region, Lake Sevan to the east and the Ararat plain to the west. In addition to the ruins of the fortress of Guégui, you can see the ruins of the castle of Kévork Matzpétouni, another 11th century fort.

To access the Khosrov reserve, an information centre, located opposite the Garni temple on the other side of the gorge, offers documentation. Among the hiking trails, the simplest leads to the outskirts of the reserve itself, to the monastery Sourp Amenaperguitch or Avouts Tar, opposite the temple.

The Khosrov forest was partly disfigured by the violent fires that ravaged it, as well as some other forests in Armenia, in the summer of 2017. It took several days to overcome the flames, which swept away hectares of the Khosrov reserve