Sevanavank Monastery is located on a small rocky peninsula, on the northeastern shore of Lake Sevan. It is included in the UNESCO Cultural Heritage List. Tourists come to this place to relax on the shore of a high-altitude lake, as well as to visit one of the oldest monasteries in Armenia.
To this day, two ancient churches of the 9th century have been preserved in the Sevanavank Monastery, but the history of the monastery dates back to the 4th century, when in 303 Gregory the Illuminator convinced the Armenian king Trdat III to adopt Christianity as the state religion. The first Christian church in Armenia, built by St. Gregory, was the Echmiadzin Cathedral, 20 kilometers east of Yerevan.
Gregory the Illuminator founded two more small churches. One of them was located near the Holy Spring in the gorge of the Gokht River. Later, the Geghard Monastery appeared on this site. In 305, he built a second small Church of the Ascension on the site of a pagan temple on a rocky island in the middle of the waters of Lake Sevan.
Nowadays, the Sevanavank Monastery is located on the peninsula, and until the beginning of the 20th century it was located on an island 3 kilometers from the shore of Lake Sevan. At the beginning of the 20th century, Armenian scientists suggested that due to the large water mirror, most of the water evaporates, and proposed using it for irrigation of the Ararat Valley and agricultural development.
In 1936, the local authorities began to implement a project to lower the level of Lake Sevan in order to direct the lake`s waters to the irrigation systems of the Ararat Valley. After the completion of their construction, the water level of Lake Sevan fell by 20 meters. Part of the land was exposed and now the monastery is located on the peninsula.
In 995, the ancient church built on the island by Gregory the Illuminator was destroyed by an earthquake and now its foundation can be seen near two other churches: Surb-Arakelonts and Surb-Astvatsatsin. Both churches were built by monks in the period 871-874 at the expense of Princess Mariam, daughter of the king Ashot I Bagratuni.
The churches of the Sevanavank Monastery are built of black stones. Translated from Armenian, "Sevanavank" means "Black Monastery". Until the middle of the Middle Ages, Lake Sevan was called "Gelam", however, later it began to be called by the name of the monastery "Sevan".
After lowering the lake level by 20 meters, a beach area was formed near the Sevan Peninsula. The most famous Beaches of Sevan are located on the northeastern shore of the lake. Considering that Armenia has no access to the sea, the inhabitants of this country like to come here on vacation. The capital of Armenia, Yerevan, is only 70 kilometers to the southwest. 30 kilometers to the south is the Ayravank Monastery.
