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The Road to Sourp Sdepanos
In May 2014, I was traveling from Van to Kars with my wife and a group of close friends. Not long after passing the northeast-most corner of Lake Van, I was looking up at the countryside when a structure along the mountain ridge caught my eye, and I had our driver stop. There was no access for our vehicle, and the structure was too far in the distance to walk, but I grabbed my most powerful camera lens and took some photographs of what was obviously a church.
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Another incredible vestige of our civilization. Remarkable history. So much to learn, appreciate and protect. Our ancestor continue to amaze me with their resilience. Great lesson for us. Thank you George.
Thank you, George, thank you very much for posting these wonderful photos. And thank you for all the important work you do for the Cause.
I remember well the excitement of that day when George spotted the church in the distance. This is yet another example of a church that had been lost to our culture since 1915, but that has been rediscovered thanks to people such as George Aghjayan.
Postscript. In 2021 the monastery’s medieval cemetery, containing elaborate “proper” khachkars over 2m tall, was destroyed (all khachkars removed and the site leveled and covered with earth). To reach it, the destroyers – probably Turkish paramilitary forces (gendarmerie) – had to cut a roadway up a hillside. This is probably the “access road” mentioned in those Turkish sources, and was a cover story for the actual purpose of the road. As of June 2023 there is no access road to the church. The destroyed cemetery, located on a ridge to the south of the lower church, is not reported in any published source on the site.