Monastery of Geghard and the Upper Azat Valley

Masons at Geghard did not build so much as excavate: several of the monastery's churches and tombs were hewn directly into the living cliff, complete with carved vaults and cross-stones hidden inside the rock. Set among the towering walls at the head of the Azat Valley, the complex marks a summit of Armenian medieval architecture, and its name recalls the spear said to have pierced Christ, long kept here as a relic. UNESCO inscribed Geghard and the upper valley in 2000.