CHURCH AT KEGHORT. 
341 
“ the castle of Gerni, which he had built with square and hewn stones, 
“ fashioned with lead and iron; and also there erected an umbracidum, 
“ or summer-house, a monument carved with wonderful art, for Chosroi- 
“ duchta, his sister, and in it made an inscription in the Grecian cha- 
“ racter to her memory.” Tiridates flourished in the time of Diocle¬ 
tian, according to the table given by the Armenian historian at the end 
of his work. 
From Gerni (which is about eleven miles or three fursungs from our 
encampment) we entered farther into the mountains which assumed an 
excessively wild and romantic appearance, and descended into the deep 
glen through which the river runs. Here is an Armenian village, oppo¬ 
site to which, upon a conspicuous and almost inaccessible part of the moun¬ 
tain is an old square fort with turrets, called Kiz Calehsi, and near it an 
Armenian church. Captain Monteith informed me that he had visited 
a ruin called Byrs, situated on a strong natural position in this chain of 
mountains, and that it bore the marks of very great antiquity. It may 
probably be the remains of Babyrsa, one of the treasure cities of 
Tigranes and Artabasus. ^ 
The scenery beyond this, as far as the church and monastery of Keg- 
hort, is wild and grand in the extreme. The mountains present im¬ 
mense masses of earth, rock and shrubbery, in the most extravagant 
combinations. In some places the strata are almost perpendicular, 
as if some great commotion had uprooted the whole mass to its very 
foundation. To reach Keghort, it is necessary to travel on a nar¬ 
row path, which winds on the side of the mountain. The monas¬ 
tery appears suddenly on the abrupt turn of a rock, situated in the 
most romantic manner in an amphitheatre of stupendous rocks that 
arise wildly all around it. The building consists of a church surmounted 
by a conical roof, built of stone, like the other churches seen all over 
the territory of Erivan, and of a set of rude chambers around, which 
served the double purpose of a fortification and of habitations for the 
* Strabo, lib. xi. p. 529. 
