Metravel city quest
City Yerevan: free walking route “A Yerevan Quest: The City at the Foot of Ararat” along the sights. 10 points. Approximately 3 h. Quests and legends
They say Yerevan grew out of a volcano. The stone that nearly the whole city is built from is tuff from the foothills of Ararat — lava that set solid long ago. That is why at sunset the streets seem to heat up from within, and the city changes colour from dawn to dusk.
You will walk through Yerevan from the bottom up — from the stalls of the Vernissage through the heart of the city to the stairway of the Cascade and further on, to the summit from which, on a clear day, that very Ararat opens up before you, the ancestral mountain. Along the way the city will show you its faces: the market and the courtyards, coffee and sculptures, letters and stone. Collect them all — and at the finale you will understand why Armenians call this mountain their own, even though it has long been across the border.
How it works: read the story of the place, find the stop, look around and complete the task. No internet needed — all the answers are right in front of you.
Ready to read the city like stone — layer by layer?
The route points in order — what these places are and why they are interesting. Tasks and answers stay inside the quest.
The Vernissage is a vast open-air crafts market. At weekends vendors sell karpet rugs, silver, duduks, old coins and carvings in a shiny black stone, which in Armenia lies right underfoot — it is solidified lava, a splinter of the same volcano that gave Yerevan the stone for its walls.
The main square of Yerevan is an ensemble that Tamanyan also designed. All the buildings around it are built of volcanic tuff — a soft stone from the foothills of Ararat that is easy to dress and plays beautifully in the sun.
The grand avenues are a shop window. The real Yerevan hides in the courtyards behind them: carved wooden balconies, grapevines, washing on the line, mulberry trees, and neighbours who still drink coffee together and loudly discuss the news.
An optional stop — not a puzzle but a recommendation. Near the route there is a place worth a small detour.
An optional stop for pleasure, not for puzzles. The best discoveries on a trip often happen over a cup of coffee.
Time to catch your breath — Yerevan style, over a cup of coffee. Armenian coffee (soorj) is brewed slowly, on hot sand or a low flame, in a small copper vessel with a long handle.
Here Tamanyan Street begins — and here stands Tamanyan himself. Alexander Tamanyan reinvented the whole of Yerevan — the city spreads out from the centre in rings and rays, like the sun; for this work he received the Grand Prix at the World Exhibition in Paris.
The Cascade is a giant tuff staircase that descends from the hill to the centre of the city. Tamanyan laid down the idea back in the 1920s, and it was built in the 1970s–80s; escalators are tucked away inside, and the terraces host the Cafesjian Museum of Modern Art with sculptures by Botero, Chihuly and others.
The Matenadaran is a repository of ancient manuscripts, one of the richest in the world: more than 17 thousand manuscripts, from medical treatises to star charts. In front of the building stands Mesrop Mashtots, the creator of the Armenian alphabet, and kneeling beside him is his pupil Koryun.
The last climb is to the “Mother Armenia” monument. On the pedestal where Stalin once stood, in 1967 there rose a 22-metre copper woman: calm, stern, facing the city.
This route is part of Metravel city quests. Below are the other quests in this city and cities with quests nearby.