UNDER CONSTRUCTION

   Continuing the main highway N  from Ijevan the first village is Getahovit (till 1978 Tala). W of Getahovit is the ruined Iritsi Aghbyur medieval settlement with church and cemetery. 

   Yenokavan (till 1935 Krdevan) lie N of the road, on either side of the Sarnajur (formerly Tala) river.Yenokavan was named after early Communist Enok Mkrtumian, who founded the first party cell in the region. On the S edge of Yenokavan, perched on a rock overlooking the scenic gorge, is a small church with medieval tombstones.  About  a  km  S,

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

down inside the gorge, reachable only on foot, is an Astvatsatsin church of the 13^th c.  Some 17 km W is the Okonakhach church. There are anciently inhabited caves in the river valley.  At the NE end of the village overlooking the gorge is the 6-5^th c. BC Astghi Blur with cyclopean walls and a huge tomb field. The main dirt road through Yenokavan bears right and up the ridge, traversing the starkly beautiful mountain pastures of the Ijevan Mt. Range. This road, passible April-November (barely) by street car, serves various yaylas inhabited only in summer, and leads in some 66 km to the main Azatamut-Noyemberian road just S of Noyemberian.  This may be the best road to Samsoni Vank. Eight km NW of Yenokavan on this road, atop a hill, is Berdategh Early Armenian cyclopean fortress.