Travel Guide Idjevan

From Dilidjan, after 35 km along the course of the Aghtsev river, whose meanders meander between the mountain slopes, where forests show basalt organs in places, one arrives in Idjevan, where the course of the Aghtsev river widens to make way for a wide valley surrounded by wooded mountains. Idjevan is the capital of the Tavush province, a small mountain town whose development was severely affected by the blockade imposed by nearby Azerbaijan. Because of its location, however, the city is intended to be, and was, a place of contact between the three South Caucasian republics. Idjevan, which means hostel, was indeed an important stopover on the caravan routes of these Eurasian confines. Yet it is difficult to imagine processions of camels or mules loaded with spices and silk in this quiet and clean city, so unoriental, in its architecture, strongly marked by Sovietism, as in its natural setting Of its past, the city has retained nothing but the carpet industry. The Soviet pink tufa buildings there seem to be less dilapidated than elsewhere in this locality of very neat appearance, rich in green spaces where conifers dominate. It is moreover by an alley of high fir trees along the Aghtsev that one enters the city. The paved streets, decorated with refreshment stands, where the population is less expansive than in the rest of the country, evoke more a quiet European mountain city