The Orbelian caravanserai on the Selim pass: an inn of 1332 at 2,410 metres, what it is like inside and how to cross the pass between Vayots Dzor and Sevan

The road that climbs from Yeghegnadzor towards Lake Sevan winds for half an hour up a grassy hillside and, just before the top of the Selim pass at 2,410 metres, a low, long building of black stone appears on the right, windowless, with a slab roof and a small door: this is the Orbelian caravanserai, the inn Prince Chesar Orbelian built in 1332 so that merchants and their animals could spend the night under cover before going down to the lake or the valley. It is whole, you go in without paying and without anyone about, and inside, in the half-dark, you suddenly understand how people travelled in the 14th century. This guide tells why it is here, what it is like, when you can go up and what is nearby.

Why there is an inn on a mountain pass

In the Middle Ages the road from Persia to Georgia and the Black Sea crossed Armenia here: from the Arpa valley and Yeghegnadzor the route climbed to the pass to descend to the Sevan basin and go on to Dvin and Tbilisi, and the caravanserais, stone inns a day's journey apart, were what made it possible to move goods, with stabling, water and a roof. The Orbelians, the family that ruled Syunik and Vayots Dzor under the Mongols and also built Noravank, placed theirs at the highest and coldest point of the road, where it was most needed; the inscription in the vestibule, in Armenian, says Chesar Orbelian built it in 1332, in the time of Khan Abu Said, and another in Persian repeats the date for travellers coming from the south. It was used until trade changed routes, served as a shelter for shepherds, lost its roof and was restored between 1956 and 1959 as it was.

What it is like inside

You enter through the vestibule, a square vaulted room where the inscriptions are and, on the façade, two worn reliefs, a bull and a winged animal, the arms of the Orbelians. From there you pass into the great hall, 26 metres long, divided into three aisles by two rows of pillars: the central one, higher, for people and the fire, and the two side ones, lower, with continuous stone mangers along the wall for tethering the animals. There are no windows; light comes in through three skylights cut in the vault, which also let out the smoke, and in winter everything was shut with the single door. It is empty and smells of cold stone and sheep, and once your eyes adjust you see the masons' marks. It takes twenty minutes, and it is worth going out afterwards to the top of the pass, a hundred metres on, to see the valley on one side and the Sevan basin on the other.

When the pass can be crossed

The Selim pass, today officially called Vardenyats, is the road linking Yeghegnadzor, in Vayots Dzor, with Martuni, on the southern shore of Lake Sevan, some 70 km with the caravanserai at the highest point. It is paved and can be driven in an ordinary car, but from November to April snow often closes it and there is no snowplough on duty, so in winter you have to ask in Yeghegnadzor before going up or take the Sevan motorway instead. From May to October it is one of the lovely roads of Armenia, with the grass, the flocks and, in June, the flowers. No public transport passes the caravanserai: you go by car, by taxi from Yeghegnadzor or Martuni, or on a tour.

What to see before and after

The caravanserai is the piece that joins two regions, which is why the best way to see it is on a circular route from Yerevan: in the morning Noravank and the Areni wineries, in Vayots Dzor, and in the afternoon the pass, the caravanserai and the descent to Martuni and Sevan, with Noratus and Sevanavank on the way back to Yerevan. Anyone heading south to Goris includes it on the first day, before carrying on through Yeghegnadzor towards the cave village of Khndzoresk and the Armenian Stonehenge of Zorats Karer, three hours further on. Yerevan is 130 km away via Yeghegnadzor, about two and a half hours.

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