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Silk Road: Khor Virap


Silk Road: Khor Virap
Photo Information
Copyright: Dietrich Meyer (meyerd) Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 97 W: 15 N: 608] (1490)
Genre: Places
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2002-08
Categories: Castles
Camera: Minolta Dynax 404si, Kodak elite 200
Map: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version
Theme(s): Mount Ararat, The Silkroad on Bicycle [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2007-01-02 4:54
Viewed: 1358
Points: 20
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Travels on the Silk Road:

A side track of the historic Silk Road leads through Armenia (Byzance-Sudak-Tbilisi-Erevan-Mehri-Täbris). The fertile valley of the Aras river in the background is dominated by the volcans Mount Ararat (5156 m) and Small Ararat (not visible) on the Turkish side of the river. On the foot of a hill the Armenian monastery Khor Virap exists since the year 642 but today's buildings were built the 17th century.

Oh, and you know of course the translation of the Genesis dealing with Noe's Arch: it had supposedly landed on Mt. Ararat. A different translation would be not "Ararat" but "Urartu", meaning the mountains of the Empire Urartu which at the time of the writing of Genesis included all of later Armenia.

This is my second try on Khor Virap. The slide was scanned, the pic cleared from smudges, cropped, the hill with the monastery lightened. After resizing the pic was sharpened. Enjoy.
Buin, adores, macondo, SylFondacci, nunenik, doubay has marked this note useful
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ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To doubay: Trockene Landschaft Khor Virapmeyerd 1 01-03 19:05
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Critiques [Translate]

  • Great 
  • Buin Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 3443 W: 0 N: 6868] (23996)
  • [2007-01-02 6:44]

Hallo Dietrich!
Mittagspause - TE-Zeit ;-)
Schon wieder ein großartiges Foto mit einem atemberaubenden Blick - voll von Kontrasten. Diese verschiedenen Streifen von Farben - erst das Grün, dann dieser Felsenriegel und dann die dunstige Ferne - ein toller Bildaufbau!
Grüße aus Westfalen!
Frank

  • Great 
  • adores Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2685 W: 52 N: 3765] (12035)
  • [2007-01-02 6:54]

Hi Dietrich!
Even considering it has been scanned, it's a nice photo.This panoramic with the church is amazing.
Happy New Year!
Anabela

Hello Dietrich. Good shot, superbly composed to highlight the monastery between the vines and the mountains. It is a breathtaking scene. A good scan, but there's a little noise and the vines lack sharpness. However, the colour, light and composition make up for this. Well done.
Regards,
Andrew

Great capture of a beautiful landscape and a mythical mountain !
Good shot !
Sylvie

Enjoying indeed!!
Nice fertile land, mountain and Khor Virap at the back! Nice compo :)
If only Ararat wasn't so cloudy...
By the way, have you been inside Khor Virap?

Cheers,
Nune

wonderful photo! now this is the one!

excellent excellent.. but that is Khor Virap, sure :) can't be bad :)

marko

Hallo Dietrich,
tolles Foto einer tollen Landschaft. Neben der beeindruckenden Weite machen den Reiz des Fotos die kontrastreichen Elemente aus: Der wolkenbedeckte, imposante Berg Ararat im Hintergrund, das alte armenische Kloster auf dem vorgelagerten Hügel und natürlich die Weinstöcke im Vordergrund. Insbesondere der Anblick der Weinstöcke wirkt überraschend, weil man sie inmitten dieser trockenen Landschaft eigentlich gar nicht erwartet.

Neben dem landschaftlichen Aspekt, enthält das Foto natürlich auch eine implizite, nicht ganz unkomplizierte politische Komponente, denn irgendwo zwischen Kloster und Ararat verläuft ja die (von Armenien bis heute nicht anerkannte) Grenze zur Türkei. Vielleicht solltest du das in den Kommentar mit aufnehmen, evtl. mit einem Hinweis, dass das Gebiet jenseits der Grenze auch einmal zum Kern des armenischen Siedlungsgebietes gezählt hat.
Viele Grüße
Andreas

Hi Dietrich - the image quality is quite good for a scan, I think the clouds also look good, complementing the trio of nature, architecture and agriculture in the foreground, I may go there in april or may, there will probably be more snow on Ararat then.

  • Great 
  • Alyx Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 76 W: 59 N: 96] (557)
  • [2007-01-13 18:40]

Bonjour Dietrich,
Magnifique photo! J'adore les couleurs et la composition. Le ciel donne un air vraiment grave à l'humeur. La qualité moyenne est surement dûe au scan. L'arménie est vraiment un pays très beau.
TFS, Elise.

Hello Dietrich!

Every time I see this beautiful sight I cannot resist its beauty. Combination of nature - beautiful snow-topped Arrarat in the background and human creativity from the right side make an integrated unity. This unity of nature and human activity (architecture)is one of the striking feature when travelling in the South Caucasus. When I was coming back from Republic of Nagorny Karabax we stopped in Khor Virap to admire a beautiful sunset. What's interesting there were lots of storcks flying over my head at that time. Such quantity I saw only in the countryside in Poland. I took even a picture of one of them standing on the roof of the church. Good composition.
Warm greetings from snowy Poland
emilia

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