Arzni-resortArzni, resort town is located 22 km from the north of the capital of the Republic of Armenia, Yerevan city at the height of 1280 meters above sea. Along with sanatorium and medicinal infrastructure, the area of this resort encompasses the protected sanitary zone of spring captures and engineering structures of Arzni mineral water, supplied through special pipelines to the Arzni Factory of Mineral Water. Arzni resort region borders to the southern slopes of the Miskhor Mountains, huge volcanic massif of Mount Alagyoz in the west, the western slopes of the Akhmanghi Ridge in the east and lowers to transform directly into the Arax River valley in the south. Wide open in its upper north-western part, the Hrazdan River gorge, which accommodates the resort, narrows to the south transforming into a deep canyon down from the resort area. Sheer canyon walls of basalt and andesite basalt descend almost to the river and attach a unique beauty to the whole place. The gorge slopes are forested. The locality of the resort is a broad hilly plateau composed of lava flows ejected in the past from volcanic cones clearly manifested in the relief. The plateau is cut by the Hrazdan River into two parts. From 1927 to 1931, different scholars worked in this region of artesian mineral springs to study individual aspects related to their geologic and hydro-geologic characteristics, as well as chemical composition of the waters. The works of E. E. Karstens (1927) merit special attention as they were related to a detailed chemical analysis of the Arzni mineral source, determination of micro-elements and radioactivity of its water. Important contribution was made also by mining engineer A. P. Demyokhin who headed the activities on detailed hydro-geological prospecting and capturing that were first launched in 1931 and continued until 1938. The results of those studies were summarized in his published monograph entitled Arzni - a Geological Outline. That was the first study, where factual material was used as a basis for professional elucidation of general issues related to the geological and hydro-geological structure of the region of mineral springs. His works enabled a multifold increase of the useful water resources (up to 1800 m3/day), creating a reliable basis for further development of the resort. Since then, mineral springs of Arzni took their merited place in the world's cadastre of large deposits of mineral water. A. A. Florensky, O. T. Karapetyan, B. M. Levchenko, K. N. Paffenholtz, A. A. Alexandryan and other scientists addressed individual aspects of the geological and hydro-geological structure of the Arzni deposit of mineral water based on the separate investigations conducted in 1935 -1961. The hydrogeology of the region is determined by its geological structure, characterized by extensive development of basaltic andesite and basaltic lava taking considerable areas across both banks of the Hrazdan River. They are of decisive importance as the geological factor determining the character of water. "The spectacular fracturing of the basaltic andesite cover enables considering the entirety of the cover as a huge filter leaking water freely to the deeper horizons. " Based on specially conducted observations, the favorable climatic conditions of the Arzni resort should be noted particularly. The climate in the resort is continental (with relatively cold winter and moderately hot summer, short spring and always warm autumn). Average annual temperature amounts to 9.3оС and average relative annual humidity is 62%. The atmospheric pressure minimum is recorded in July (653 mmHg) and the maximum in October (662 mmHg). By the annual number of clear days, Arzni ranks over any resort of the Caucasian mineral waters and has a prominent advantage compared to the resorts in the Black Sea coast as it allows organization of efficient climatotherapy. Along with the great number of solar hours (2,223 hours per year) and intense solar radiation (1.59 Ci/cm2) there is an opportunity for effective climatotherapy (from April till October), which is an important procedure in the complex of sanatorium-resort treatment. With the study of climatic factors, effective seasons for treatment of different diseases have also been established. In Arzni, all seasons of the year are indicated for hypertensive patients, while summer is a more favorable season for cardio-vascular patients with stable compensation, autumn is preferable for patients with non-stable compensation of cardiac activity, and winter is favorable for patients without violation of cardiac function and accompanying neurotic condition with predominance of stimulation process. The resort conditions and water parameters make it possible to treat hypertensive patients, stress, as well as diseases of female genital organs, patients with atherosclerotic cardio-sclerosis, hepatic, gallbladder and billiary tract diseases. The favorable climatic features of the plateau determine the ways of further resort development and all the meteorological elements are in the limits of comfort. |
