Zorats Karer Stone Circle - Sisian - Armenia
Posted: September 15 2021
Visiting Zorats Karer, mysterious Stone Circle in the hills out of Sisian, Armenia.
The Zorats Karer Stone Circle, Historic cultural Preserve, late 3rd-mid 1st millennium BC
The Zorats Karer site, also known as "Zorakarer", "Dik Karer", "Tsits-Tsits Karer", "Ghosun Dash" and "Karahunj", the names used to describe the surviving standing stones (menhirs), with soldiers believed to be buried just below them.
This is Armenia's own Stonehenge. Actually it looks more like the standing stones on Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. The landscape is awesome. After a burning hot summer with no rain, grass is yellow, low cloud tell me that summer in these parts is finally over.
The Zorats Karer site, also known as "Zorakarer", "Dik Karer", "Tsits-Tsits Karer", "Ghosun Dash" and "Karahunj", the names used to describe the surviving standing stones (menhirs), with soldiers believed to be buried just below them.
This is Armenia's own Stonehenge. Actually it looks more like the standing stones on Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. The landscape is awesome. After a burning hot summer with no rain, grass is yellow, low cloud tell me that summer in these parts is finally over.
This post has been re written for Nomadic Backpacker and is based on my travels in 2015
The trip to Tusheti had to be aborted. Tusheti/Omalo was meant to be my escape from the brutal summer heat.
But it was not meant to be.
The road, little more than a narrow jeep track, had been washed away. How long does it take to rebuild a road through the remote mountains? So having waited 2 nights in the vague hope that all would be well, me and SJ, travelled back to Tbilisi and took a marshrutkha to Yerevan.
Sunday afternoon is the worst time to do this. Zero other passengers until 6pm and a then a 'meat market' of a border crossing, we trundled into Yerevan at 2am. We spent a cool night in a park near the opera house, used the free wifi to find a guest house and then went to wake the night receptionist up and with luck our room for that night was free allowing us much needed shut-eye.
Then we travelled south to Sisian. Tired from having road walked from Garni Temple to Geghard Monastery and back (20km or so) just out side Yerevan, we killed the first afternoon getting drunk.
The first bottle of red went down well. While we let the second bottle breathe, we slurped Russian beers. But the second bottle of red was a disaster. My dad would have said that it would have been ideal sink cleaner.
But it was not meant to be.
The road, little more than a narrow jeep track, had been washed away. How long does it take to rebuild a road through the remote mountains? So having waited 2 nights in the vague hope that all would be well, me and SJ, travelled back to Tbilisi and took a marshrutkha to Yerevan.
Sunday afternoon is the worst time to do this. Zero other passengers until 6pm and a then a 'meat market' of a border crossing, we trundled into Yerevan at 2am. We spent a cool night in a park near the opera house, used the free wifi to find a guest house and then went to wake the night receptionist up and with luck our room for that night was free allowing us much needed shut-eye.
Then we travelled south to Sisian. Tired from having road walked from Garni Temple to Geghard Monastery and back (20km or so) just out side Yerevan, we killed the first afternoon getting drunk.
The first bottle of red went down well. While we let the second bottle breathe, we slurped Russian beers. But the second bottle of red was a disaster. My dad would have said that it would have been ideal sink cleaner.
Well rested and not a hint of a hang over, we loaded up with bread, salami, tinned fish, mayo and some beers and made a day trip of Zorats Karer, just an hours walk from town.