On the territory of Armenia there are a large number of cultural and historical monuments of the past. Many remains of ancient settlements, medieval temples and other structures of historical value have been found here.
In these places you can see chapels, steles, valuable architectural monuments. The territories of the Hrazdan River and the city of the same name are especially rich in such cultural structures.
General information
Hrazdan is the river of Armenia, which is the largest left tributary of the Araks. Its length is 141 thousand km, the entire area of the basin, together with Lake Sevan, is 7310 square meters. km, and the area of the basin of the river itself is 2560 sq. km.
The city of Sevan is located nearby.
In 1930-1962, a whole complex (Sevan cascade) of 6 HPPs was created on Hrazdan.
Rivers of Armenia
In Armenia, not only Hrazdan (river) is important for the national economy of the state. Debed, Lkhum, flowing into the Kura, and others are also quite significant for Armenia. However, the mostriver has a great length. Akhuryan, which is approximately 200 km long.
They all have three types of drain mode and power supplies. Snow-rain (mixed) nutrition, summer floods and spring runoff are typical for water bodies in the eastern and western territories. In the central part, the bulk of the rivers is replenished by groundwater, as well as by summer floods. Only a small part of the territory of Armenia belongs to the drainless zone.
In fact, the rivers in Armenia have rather small areas of their catchment areas (up to 2000 sq. km.), so in most of them the volume of annual flow is small. Only in the Araks this indicator is within 22,000 square meters. kilometers.
The longest river in Armenia, as noted above, is the Akhuryan, which flows into the Araks. The latter, in turn, flows into the Kura on the territory of Azerbaijan. The largest tributaries of the Araks in Armenia are the Kasakh, Akhuryan, Voghji, Hrazdan, Lrpa and Vorotan.
Where does the Hrazdan River flow from?
The river originates from the northwestern section of Lake Sevan. First, its waters flow along the mountain valley in a southerly direction, towards Yerevan.
On the territory of Yerevan, the river makes sharp bends. In the lower reaches, it flows along the Ararat plain and flows into the Araks River on the border with Turkey, approximately at the place where the city of Sevan is located.
Meaning of the river
Hrazdan has a special meaning for Armenia. On the banks of the river there are such large settlements as Sevan, Charentsavan, Hrazdan and the capital of Armenia, the city of Yerevan.
Besidesmain task (electricity generation), the waters of this reservoir are widely used for agricultural irrigation. In addition, fishing is well developed in these places.
Other water resources
There are not very many lakes in Armenia. The greatest we alth and national pride of the state is the magnificent Lake Sevan (area 1,416 thousand square kilometers, height above sea level - 1916 m). Its waters are the main source of water supply for the most densely populated zone of the country.
Hrazdan is the river on which the hydroelectric power station was built. After the construction of the HPP cascade, the territory of Lake Sevan was reduced to 1240 square meters. kilometers, and the level of the water surface decreased by 20 meters. Attempts were made in the country to remedy the situation with the help of an underground tunnel to the Arpa River. It was planned that its waters would refill the lake, but this did not help.
Armenia is rich in numerous deposits of underground thermal and mineralized waters. Among them, the following sources of therapeutic hot and mineral waters are especially famous and popular: Jermuk, Bjni, Dilijan, Sevan, Hankavan, etc. They have quite healing properties and are a promising type of country's products for export. There is also a demand for medicinal waters abroad.
City on the Hrazdan River
On the left bank in the upper reaches of the river there is a magnificent Armenian city called Hrazdan. Until 1959, it was the village of Akhta, and in 1963 it includedseveral nearby villages: Mak-Ravan, Kaqavadzor, Jrarat and Vanatur.
Subsequently, residents from other regions and republics began to move to the city, which led to the rapid and successful development of its infrastructure. Since then, landscaping has improved significantly: new residential buildings, streets, schools have been built, park areas and alleys have appeared.
This settlement belongs to the Armenian region of Kotayk. At a distance of only 50 kilometers from it is the capital of the state - the city of Yerevan.
Except r. Hrazdan, its tributaries, Tsakhkadzor and Kakavadzor, also flow through the city territory. Nearby is a reservoir built in 1953.
The city is also notable for the fact that quite interesting architectural and historical monuments have survived here to this day.
For example, in the southern part there is an ancient monastic complex Makravank, which combines several ancient religious buildings. It was built in the XVIII century. The main element of the complex is the Church of the Holy Virgin.
The eastern part of this territory is occupied by a small cemetery. It contains khachkars - stone steles with images of a cross.
Conclusion
It should be noted that Hrazdan is a river, in the basin of which deposits of gold, iron, copper, molybdenum, manganese, phosphorus and some other minerals were once discovered.
In turn, the modern city and Hrazdan are an excellent combination of a modern microdistrict with a cozydacha-rural area. There are excellent opportunities here to combine a pleasant stay with knowledge of the history of a part of magnificent Armenia.
