After descending the  Arax  valley  on the main S road from Yerevan, turn left at the Yeraskh traffic circle (straight will take you to the Nakhichevan border and possible disaster), and wind up through increasingly scenic hills until the watershed that marks the border between   Ararat   and    Vayots Dzor. The first village one reaches once over the     1795m    Tukh    Manuk    pass   is

   Next   is  Chiva, turnoff  left,   has  a 10^th c. church. Just W of the village on the S side of the main road is an Early Christian through Late Medieval cemetery with fine carved tombstones.

Yelpin (population came from Salmast in 1830) N of the road. Right from the main road (the entrance is by the gas station), before the village is a 14^th c. Tukh Manuk shrine/pilgrimage  site. Climbing the mountain NNW of the village are traces of a medieval  fort. One km N  are fine khachkars. There are prehistoric caves  nearby. A dirt road leads about 12 km NW to a mineral spring, on a hill above which is a medieval shrine. A dirt road N from Yelpin leads in about 10 km to Khndzorut (Elmalu) village with a ruined gavit/narthex and cemetery with inscriptions. The old road E toward Aghavnadzor passes a left turn at the ruined hamlet of Geshin, which leads in turn to a substantial fortified caves on the mountain slope.