UNDER CONSTRUCTION

      remote    and    beautiful    part    of Armenia along the NE border with Azerbaijan, the former Shamsadin district is comprised of three deep river valleys, the Hakhum, Tavush, and Khndzorut, all running N to the Kura in Azerbaijan from the Miapor mountain range, with high ridges in between. There are three access roads

   Turning  right,   one   enters   Navur, with a series of ruined 3rd-1st millennium forts: Tandzut fort, 1st millennium BC (5 km S); Berdi Glukh fort, early 1st millenium BC (S edge of town); Kari Glukh cyclopean fort; Srtner fort, 6-4th c. BC (small hill 6 km W);  Dashti Berd   cyclopean  fort  (3km

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

into the region. First is a spectacular mountain road that leaves from the NW edge of Ttujur, just beyond Chambarak/Krasnosyelsk, and follows the ridge between the Hayrum and Tavush rivers to Navur. Second is a road that goes E from the N extremity of the Ijevan-Kazakh road, following the Azerbaijani border. Third, shortest looking on the map but the most difficult, is a poor dirt road that switchbacks up from the S edge of Ijevan, through Ganzakar and thence to Itsakar and Berd. From Krasnosyelsk/Chambarak E of Lake Sevan, the road NW along the Getik river passes Ttujur and (8.4 km from the Krasnosyelsk junction) turns back to the right on a smooth, partly asphalted road. From this turn-off, the road reaches the Marz boundary/watershed at 5.8 km, and then a series of hamlets for pasturing animals during the summer. At 28.5 km is a modern monument from 1988, with picnic tables made from old millstones and an ornamental fortress inscribed “Eternal is my paternal earth.” At 41.3 km is an impressive equestrian statue (1993?) of General Andranik facing fiercely toward Azerbaijan, with a small child? clutched to his chest. Beside this is the well-tended grave of Mushegh “Papo” Asrian, commander of the Navur self-defense forces, killed in 1990 in an auto accident near Hrazdan (or else, by a more poetic narrative, sacrificed in Karabakh). At 42 km is the intersection with the Itsakar-Berd road.  Turning left one soon reaches the little village of Itsakar on the road back to Ijevan. 

        

SW)  has substantial wall remains.