Argavand (till 1946 Uzunoba) is just S of the road to Zvartnots airport. It has a ruined 5^th c. S. Harutyun church in the cemetery, and a large Turkmen funerary monument of 1413 with Arabic inscription. Take the right fork at the sign “Customs    Worehouse” and immediately  look  right. Standing on its own is a substantial faceted stone    funerary    tower,   one   of    the

   Next  village   S   is   Geghanist   (till 1948 Kolkat), with a church of 1852.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

handful  of significant Islamic monuments remaining intact in Armenia. The lengthy Arabic frieze inscription dated to 1413 begins with a famous Sura from the Koran and commemorates Pir Hussein son of Sa’ad, a self-satisfied tribal lord in Armenia during the brief period after the death of Timur Lenk when Kara Yusuf, leader of the Turkmen Karakoyunlu (Black Sheep) tribal confederation, was supreme ruler of much of Timur’s Persian empire.  Pir Budaq was Kara-Yusuf’s son, who briefly shared the throne with his father.  The Karakoyunlu got mixed reviews in Armenian accounts, and were in any case soon driven out by the Akkoyunlu, or White Sheep, a rival confederation.