Уникальность столиц мира

Муниципальное бюджетное общеобразовательное учреждение

«Школа № 2» городского округа Семеновский

Нижегородской области

Муниципальный конкурс инновационных проектов по английскому языку

«Уникальность столиц мира»

Тема: «Ереван- столица Армении»

Работу выполнили:

Авагян Лусабер

Пилигузова Маргарита

Руководитель:

Соловьёва Е.А.

2018 год

Yerevan is the capital of Armenia.

The purpose of my work is to explore the peculiarity and the uniqueness of the capital of Armenia – Yerevan.

Yerevan is the capital of Armenia. According to the legend, Noah lived here before the flood, therefore, Armenians consider their capital the oldest inhabited place in the world, and after the flood, leaving his ark on Mount Ararat, Noah again descended into the valley, where now Yerevan is stretched. Today nobody doesn’t know that it was true or fiction. But according to scientists Yerevan is one of the most ancient cities in the world, especially if we consider only existing cities.

Yerevan is one of the oldest cities in the world, the capital and the largest city of Armenia by population and area. It is the same coeval of Babylon and Rome. The year of foundation of the city is 782 BC- that's when the fortress of Erebuni was founded by King Argishty. The Urartu Kingdom was a powerful and highly developed civilization. Thus, according to cuneiform 'passport' of Yerevan, it's almost 3000 years old. The reconstructed ruins of the fortress Erebuni and museum are located in the Southeastern part of the city. The feast 'Erebuni Yerevan', devoted to the establishment of Yerevan city, are celebrated every year in October.

However, people lived here a long time before the founding of the city. Archaeologists discovered the oldest settlements of the IV-III millennium BC on the territory of the city. Shengavit is the oldest of it.

In the following centuries, during the penetration of Urartians into the Ararat Valley (VIII century BC), the territory of Yerevan begins to be built by the Urartu kings. In that time the fortresses of Erebuni and Teishebaini are built. And new cities appear on the Ararat valley in the following years. Favorable conditions were created for the economic development of Yerevan after the annexation of Eastern Armenia to Russia (in 1828). It became the center of the Erivan province.

In 1856, the first plan for the improvement of Yerevan was drawn up. At the end of the XIX century, enterprises appeared: wine-cognac factories Tairova, Afrikyan, Saradzheva, the mechanical workshop of Ter-Avetikova. New schools are opening, including the male and female gymnasiums, a teacher's seminary, a commercial school. In late 1920, Yerevan became the capital of Armenia. From this time, rapid development of the city began.

Architecture of today's Yerevan combines the elements of past and present. The project of architecture of the city was created by Alexander Tamanyan. And that project completely transformed appearance of the city. In the architectural ensembles of the city used elements, which used by Armenian architects of the past centuries.

Yerevan is called «A pink city” since it is built, mainly from cream and pink tuff. Alexander Tamanyan did not accidentally choose these shades. After all, he dedicated the project of a beautiful city to his wife. Yerevan has become one of the most beautiful and original cities in the world.

Ask any Armenian: where is Yerevan begin? He will point to Mount Ararat and say, without hesitation: here from there. Yerevan is quite high in the mountains. Gorges, valleys and beautiful views to the tops of the sacred for all Armenians Mount Ararat is an integral part of the city.

Yerevan is built on the principle of a circle, from which the rays are scattered streets. From the north to the west, Yerevan crosses the gorge of the Hrazdan River with parks, lakes and waterfalls, cafes and restaurants. Monuments of different epochs are preserved in Yerevan. First of all, these are the ruins of the Urartian fortress of Erebuni on the hill Arin-Bird, on the hill Karmir-Bloor- the remains of another Urartian fortress, at its foot - Urartian city of Teishebaini.

It’s an ancient city with a rich history. Yerevan never stops conquering the hearts of travelers. A huge number of architectural and historical monuments, museums and exhibition centers - this is a real paradise for those, who like to dedicate their holidays to excursions and walks in picturesque places.

In the 17th and 19th centuries, Yerevan finally came to the time that the city had been waiting for. The heyday of art, literature, architecture is all that gradually drew, built and wrote a new image, a new face of Yerevan. The capital of Armenia, the elder brother of Rome, repeatedly destroyed almost to the ground and rebelled from the dust, Yerevan is considered to be one of the most beautiful cities on the planet. Fascinating with its beauty and arrogance architecture, as well as a wonderful national cuisine make it attractive for tourists, well, the indigenous people love and admire this wonderful city, the pride and glory of Armenia, which lies in the very heart of the Ararat valley.

The city is named after the fortress of Erebuni, built by the Urartian king Argishty I in the first quarter of the VIII century. BC.

Delightful beauty, the fortified city is to this day the most important part of Yerevan, symbol of the capital and Armenia itself, easily recognizable throughout the world.

The unique atmosphere, reigning in this piece of this ancient history, will not leave indifferent even the most insensitive to the beauty and greatness of man. Of course, in its original form the city could not survive, but the skillful hands of archaeologists and re-enactors lovingly restored the original appearance of the city, and now the city-museum of Erebuni is one of the most popular sights of Yerevan.

In 1827 the city became part of the Russian Empire. By this time, it consisted of three quarters, in which there were 1,700 houses, several mosques and caravanserais and 2 schools. During the accession to Russia in Erivani lived about 15 thousand people.

Sights of Yerevan

One of the most original monuments of architecture is the Great Cascade. The genre of this sight is difficult to determine. Cascade is a large-scale architectural complex, consisting of numerous staircases, which connects the foothill region of Yerevan and the settlements located high in the mountains. Climbing the stairs, at every step you can find beautiful sculptures and fountains.

In the 5th century, the first Christian church dedicated to Peter and Paul was built in Erivan. But, unfortunately, the ancient temple of Petros-Pogos was destroyed in 1931.

The State Museum of the History of Armenia was founded in 1921 and is a part of the Museum Complex on the Republic Square, occupying the first two floors. About 400,000 exhibits are collected in the museum's funds. The permanent exposition covers the entire history of the Armenian people - from the time of the primitive society to the present day.

The museum presents the items of material culture discovered during excavations of monuments of different eras - objects of culture of the Armenian people from the Paleolithic to the end of the XIX century.

These are the tools of the primitive man, weapons and utensils of the times of Urartu and other Armenian states, sculptures, ornaments, as well as craft products of various historical regions of Armenia.

The museum has a rich library (about 50,000 volumes), many of which are unique publications: among them - the first printed book "Urbatagirk" ("Friday Book"), published in 1512 in Venice.

The State Picture Gallery of the country is included in the large Museum Complex on the Republic Square. The Armenian Art Gallery stores more than 20 thousand works of art.

The gallery includes four departments: Western European Painting, Russian Art, Armenian Fine Arts and Graphics Department. The fund of the West European department has more than 350 canvases and drawings. There are also paintings of such famous Western European masters as Chagall, Rubens, Courbet, Kandinsky; famous Russian artists - Repin, Bryullov, Surikov, Petrov - Vodkin, as well as Western Armenian painters - Garzu, Fetvadzhyan, Orakian and many others. The museum has the most complete collection of paintings by Aivazovsky. Basically, these are exhibits that were in the nationalized collections of museums in Moscow and St. Petersburg, gifts of Armenian collectors.

"Matenadaran" in ancient Armenian means "book depository". This is the Matenadaran - the pride of Armenian culture, the world's largest repository of ancient manuscripts - rises above Mesrop Mashtots Avenue in the center of Yerevan. It was created on the basis of the nationalized in 1920 collection of manuscripts of the Etchmiadzin Monastery. The chronological sequence of the location of exhibits represents the national written culture, beginning with the era of writing until the XIX century.

Opened on March 1, 1959, the Matenadaran is a whole scientific research institute of the Ancient Manuscript, the funds of which number more than 17 thousand ancient manuscripts and more than 100 thousand ancient archival documents.

Along with 13 thousand Armenian manuscripts, more than 2,000 manuscripts are kept here in Russian, Hebrew, Latin, Arabic, Syriac, Greek, Japanese, Persian and other languages.

The Matenadaran collection is a valuable scientific and historical base for studying the history and culture of Armenia, as well as the neighboring peoples of the Caucasus, the Near and Middle East. The Institute keeps manuscripts of the V-XVIII centuries, as well as a unique collection of early and early printed Armenian books of the 16th-18th centuries, works by ancient and medieval Armenian historians, writers, philosophers, mathematicians, geographers, doctors, translations of works of ancient Greek, Syrian, Arab and Latin scholars, including a number of works that did not survive in the original language.

Numerous examples of ancient Armenian writing and miniature are exhibited in the museum of the Institute. There is one unusual temple in Armenia. Why is it unusual? Because it's underground. Now you can learn the history of this incredibly beautiful and kind place. "It's amazing! Terrific! Incredible! "- in different languages exclaim foreign tourists. "How could we not have known about this before?" - the Armenians and their compatriots are amazed.

Each time the same words are heard from the admirers of their home by a resident of the village of Arinj, located almost in the city, Tosya Garibyan, the widow of a simple villager Levon Arakelyan - grandfather Levon, who alone made one of the most interesting sights of Armenia without exaggeration.

It all began in 1985, when once Tosya asked her husband to dig a cellar for storing potatoes. As a result, the "cellar" cost 600 dump lorry of the exported breed."I began to dig the ground at the bottom of the basement intended for household preparations. Approximately 80 cm rested against the stone layer, decided to turn to the right. Again, rested against the stone, I decided to cut the steps in the rock. After 10-12 steps changed his mind and decided to dig a wine cellar. Then I was 44 years old, and I thought that when I retire, I will spend time with friends in a stone wine cellar. From that day I began to cut through the stone thickness and did not notice how the stone began to draw me into myself. I forgot both the potato cellar and the wine cellar, "said Grandfather Levon.

Soon he dreamed: he is building an underground temple of seven halls, in which there is a sacred altar, and even a coveted bar. The unbending faith and will of the master for 23 years forced step by step to retreat a stone monolith under his house.

"Every day my strength was added, I did not get tired, although I slept for 3-4 hours. In the dark and cold years, during the fan outages, he worked under the light of a candle. And at midnight, when electricity was given, an inexplicable force pushed me out of bed and forced me to work. I was in love with a stone, it attracted me. In a dream, I saw every next step of my work: with the project and accurate calculations. Through the wall I saw all the passages, the points of crossroads and did not deviate from them.

"Master Levon dug a unique cave in the stone with a depth of 21 meters with numerous underground passages, spiral staircases and rooms. Specialists are also frequent visitors in this unusual, but outside is no different from other houses. Proof of this are the numerous publications in multilingual journals carefully preserved by Tosei and her daughters in the museum of Grandfather Levon created by them. Studies of specialists confirmed the accuracy of the calculations of the master.

Levon called this the place of dreams, which was showed to him in a dream. Later the devices will show that there is a strong positive electromagnetic field. Working in the dungeon, where at any time of the year the temperature is kept at +10 degrees, Arakelyan never complained of health. Died 6 years ago from a heart attack. "My father worked part-time at the construction site, but at home he always paid attention to cutting the cave," says Araksia, one of the daughters of Levon and Tosi. - "I remember how Mom was angry with him, but then she eventually resigned herself. And we all heard childhood at night knocking hammers from somewhere below.

"Seeing this cave structure created with the help of a hammer and chisel, you are amazed how an unnatural force and will to transform an impossible into a reality were combined in man. Here again, the words of Rockwell Kent are recalled: "If they ask me where you can meet more miracles on our planet, I would first of all mention Armenia.

"Far from the city center, on one of the green hills of Yerevan, is the Museum-Institute of the Armenian Genocide. This place perpetuated the memory of the terrible crime of the 20th century, committed against the Armenian people. The institution was opened relatively recently - in 1995. A memorial is erected next to the museum, as a monument to innocent victims. The place is not the most iridescent, but, as the ancient wisdom says: "If you forget past mistakes, there is a great likelihood of repeating them again.

Genocide

The most important part of Armenian history was The Genocide. During the First World War, the Ottoman Turkey committed a terrible crime against Armenians - a merciless mass slaughter. The deliberate destruction of Armenians by the Turks began in 1915 and lasted for several years (according to some sources, until 1923). During this time, more than 1.5 million people of the Armenian nation were killed (in those days, about two million Armenians lived on the territory of the Ottoman Empire). The remaining half a million fled, finding a refuge in foreign lands.

The Young Turk government acted as initiators of such a bloody event. Later, when the world authorities recognize this act as a terrible act, they will say "as the largest crime against humanity and civilization".

In Yerevan in 1995 on Tsitsernakaberd hill, which means "Swallow's Fortress", a memorial complex was erected with the Eternal Flame in memory of the victims of the massacre of 1915, and the Genocide Museum is located there. Every year on April 24 this place becomes Poklonnaya Hill for hundreds of thousands of Armenians, many of whom come from all over the world to participate in the funeral procession.

The symbol of the century of the Armenian Genocide is the flower of forget-me-not.

The forget-me-not flower in all languages has one meaning - do not forget. In the flower cup there is a graphic depiction of a memorial in Tsitserkaberd with its 12 pylons. Selected colors symbolize the past, the tragedy of the Genocide, the present and the future. The five petals of forget-me-not are five continents, which gave shelter to Armenian refugees who created Armenian communities there, having formed the Armenian diaspora.

Causes of Genocide.

With the outbreak of the First World War, the Young Turk government worried about the (weakening) of the Ottoman Empire and decided to create a huge Turkish empire that stretched from China to the Caucasus, including the whole of Central Asia. The Turks had plans to subordinate themselves and all small nations, appeal to the Muslim faith and their traditions. At that time, the Armenian population was the main obstacle to the implementation of the plan.

The reason for this hatred of the Turks towards the Armenians was not that the latter professed a different faith - Christianity. The main factor was one event. During the First World War, fighting with the Russian armies near Sarykamysh, the Turks were defeated. A great influence on this loss was the fact that the Armenians were on the side of the Russians and helped them in the battle. The Ottoman Empire is declared by Armenians traitors and threatened with reprisals, which is later carried out.

In conclusion, Yerevan is older than Rome, rivalling Babylon and Byzantium, which opened the world's first gates to Christianity, saw so many disasters and misfortunes, as it was destined to see no other city, always preserving the nobility of spirit and unblemished hospitality. This city has rich history, attracts tourists from all over the world and it is very important center of world culture.