| YeghvardYeghvard is a city in the Kotayk Province of Armenia. It is one of the oldest settlements full of different periods and types of valuable architectural monuments. There are three churches in the city. In the center is a small domed church of Surb Astvatsatsin also known as Yeghvard Church of 1301 with the foundation of another church adjacent, ruins of Katoghike Church, a large triple-nave basilica built in the 5th to 6th centuries located northwest of S. Astvatsatsin, and a small Saint Sargis Church. In the town near the church of S. Astvatsatsin located between houses is a Surb Astvatsatsin shrine. The shrine is a stepped pillar similar to one that may be seen in the town of Avan, and has a carving of a woman on three of the faces.
Arai ler extinct volcano rises lonely in the north of Yeghvard lava plateau. The volcanic cone Arai Ler looms over the countryside, in clear view of Mt. Aragats and the Geghama Range. The mountain, named for the mythical Armenian hero Ara Geghetsik (Ara the Beautiful or Handsome) slain by the Queen Semiramis (Shamiram in Armenian) is so named because of the shape of its crest from the west, the mountain ridge resembles the prone face of a man, some saying it is the body of Ara, banished to the mountain by the dark arts of the Babylonian queen.
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