Beau Monde Service & Travel Agency

Armenia – cradle of civilization, a country where the legends are still alive, where past and present are reflected in the eyes of people,where one can come across history on every taken step - the history of mankind, Christianity, Culture, Architecture.
Armenia is situated at a cultural, historical, and religious intersection and located at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, in the southern Transcaucasus. The country stretches 29,743 square kilometers (11,490 square miles, about the size of Belgium or Maryland) of mountainous terrain centered around the Ararat Valley, the heart of the Armenian nation since biblical times. Ancient geographers called the Armenian Highlands the "Island of Mountains" or the "Rooftop of Asia Minor."
Presently, the country is landlocked and has no navigable waterways, in contrast to Historic Armenia, which at its height under King Tigran the Great, spread from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and was more than ten times the current size of the present day Republic. Armenia has borders with Georgia to the north, with Turkey to the west and south, with Azerbaijan to the east and southwest, and with Iran to the south.

Being situated at the crossroads between East and West, Armenia has always been  a target of invasions, a place ofcollisions between the great empires of antiquity and Middle Ages. Rome, Persia, Byzantium, Arabs, Seljuks and the Mongols passed through Armenia, sometines interrupting its cultural development for centuries, clothing the land with smoked ruins. Regardless of everything, confronting each of the potent incomers, Armenian people,leaning on Faith, language and writing have stood, saving faithfullness to the culture and preserving national identity.
The legend states, that when the Armenians appeared in front of the God for reception of their share of land, all the good land had already been distributed, so God gave them leftovers, the stones, therefore one of the names of Armenia sounds like “Karastan”-“Country of Stones”.
According to the History of the Armenians after Movses Khorenatsi in 2107 B.C. the legendary archer Haik defeated the army of the Assyrian king Belus and established the first Armenian kingdom. In 1824 B.C. the Armenian princedoms united and came under one authority, thus giving birth to the geographic and political concept of Armenia.