Further   N,    in    Alaverdi   near   the Sanahin turnoff, another road winds back back W up to Akori, an estate belonging in the 19^th c. to Count Loris-Melikov, successful general and briefly Prime Minister to Czar Alexander, one of the few Armenian members of  the  Russian  nobility.  In the gorge SE is S.Gevorg church, and there is the so-called  Bgavor    shrine

   At   the  S   end  of   town,  a   modern double bridge crosses the Debed river and winds up to the E district of the Alaverdi-the village of Sanahin, with the drafty, dilapidated but survivable Debed Hotel on the main square. Beyond the hotel, the road goes  straight   and   then  right  to  the important       and     richly     decorated monastic    complex   of    Sanahin,  an

somewhere nearby.

important literary and educational center in medieval times. It was the seat of an archbishop up into the 19th c. Queen Khosrovanush, wife of King Ashot III Bagratuni, founded the monastery in 966, building an Amenaprkich (All-Savior) church beside a pre-existing 10^th c. S. Astvatsatsin church (left/N). Sanahin was the birthplace of Artashes Mikoyants, better known to history as Anastas Mikoyan (1895-1978). Anastas survived every purge and change of leadership to become Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, perhaps the most successful Armenian ever to settle in Soviet Moscow.  His brother Artyom (1905-1970) was the famous aeronautical engineer, co-designer of the MIG fighter series. The house-museum of the Mikoyan brothers is downhill from the monastery. E from the village, on the hilltop are scant remains of a church.