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UNDER
CONSTRUCTION
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The road next skirts an artificial
lake (restaurants) on the outskirts, and then enters Hrazdan,
(formerly Akhta), the administrative center of Kotayk, noteworthy
for the Hrazdanmash plant, jewel in the crown of Armenia’s Soviet-era
military-industrial complex, now struggling for a reason
to exist, and
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NE
of Hrazdan is Jrarat (formerly
Randamal), incorporated in 1982 as the administrative center of
a dairy complex linked to Aghavnadzor.
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UNDER
CONSTRUCTION
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for the Hrazdan
thermal power plants, whose district heating pipes run hither
and yon over a once pleasant valley. While passing the lake
of Hrazdan, a spur road leads up to the left to Makravan,
now an outlying neighborhood of Hrazdan and site of the Makravank
monastery. There
is a half-ruined 11th c. chapel, a 13th
c. domed church of S. Astvatsatsin, and the lower walls of the
gavit. There
is also the district formerly known as Atarbekian (for an early
Secret Police chief), now Vanatur, with ruins of a
medieval caravansaray,
Kapuyt
Khach church (modern, built on early foundations)
and S.
Astvatsatsin church
of the 19th c.
(also built
on early foundations), both with interesting khachkars and cemeteries
nearby.
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