Khor Virap

A fifth-century Armenian monastery on a volcanic hillock in the Ararat plain, Khor Virap stands at one of the closest points to the Turkish border where Mount Ararat is visible from Armenian territory. The monastery is built over the pit — the Khor Virap means 'deep dungeon' in Armenian — where Gregory the Illuminator was imprisoned for thirteen years before converting King Tiridates III to Christianity in 301 CE. The view from the monastery walls, with the double summit of Ararat filling the western sky above the vineyards of the plain, is among the most reproduced landscape compositions in Armenia.