International Railroad Discussion > Armenia, part 6. Railway museum

My GPS map showed a railway museum at the Yerevan Railway Station.

On looking for it on one of my return trips I found a small static display outside, and a fairly new set of exhibits inside. The museum was closed at the times I stopped by the station, but some of the posters were in an area that was open.

It was hard to find. I probably had to Google a bit to determine that there was an indoor and outdoor display. There weren't any obvious (to me) signs in the station leading to eh hall that had the museum.

Pics 1-3, outdoor static display. Nothing too exciting, but a respectable little train that shows folks what train travel was like in generations past.

1) Steam locomotive and one carriage

2) Locomotive nose

3) View from the cab

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I took photos of 3 display boards in a section of the museum that was open with the station. Looks like a very nice bridge in photo 4, not sure where it was.

4) Building a bridge

5) Building the station, 1956

6) Opening the railway museum.

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10) I looked through the door to the exhibit section. Looked like pretty a pretty familiar set of artifacts on display, though would certainly be unique to Armenia/former USSR.

Photos taken about Nov 1, 2017. Armenia Central Railway Station

Ted in OR

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Bonus photos -- Mt. Ararat

Ararat is an enormous, free-standing volcano who's summit is just 30 miles from downtown Yerevan. At 16,854' it rises 13,000' from the plains. Outside of the Andes, it is the 8th tallest volcano in the world. It dominates the skyline in Yerevan and in much of Armenia.

But, the international border between Turkey and Armenia runs between Yerevan and Ararat, and ever since the Genocide of 1912 or so when 1,000,000 Armenians were massacred by a previous Turkish government, Armenians have had a chilly relationship with Turkey. So while Ararat is close to Yerevan, the border is closed. And the mountain is off-limits to Armenians.

List of tallest volcanos in the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_volcanoes_by_elevation

Google maps terrain map of the area. You can see how the area around the base in Armenia is developed, but in Turkey and Iran the base around Ararat is out in the middle of the wilderness.
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9320864,44.4316965,9.92z/data=!5m1!1e4

So, while Turks are (presumably) welcome to climb at least part way, if not all the way up the mountain, with the exception of two small cities, Igder and Dogubeyazit, there are no cities or villages in Turkey with a view of the mountain.
https://goo.gl/maps/N3sZVAaiZ4H2
https://goo.gl/maps/WpcJ9kqULSz

In my usual travel strategy of minimal prior research, I didn't know anything about the proximity of Yerevan to Ararat until I arrived there and looked at my GPS, and noticed that an enormous mountain, Ararat, should dominate the horizon. Also, having been a religious practitioner earlier in life, I knew Ararat was where Noah's Ark was said to have come to rest.

So I kept an eye out for it.

11) Day 1, no 17,000' volcanos to be seen on the SW horizon

12) Day 2, I could see the sprawling base of a mountain where Ararat should be, on a bike day-trip to the city of Vagharshapat, to see three ancient churches.

13) At the Cathedral of Etchmiadzin in Vagharshapat, built 304 a.d., they had a fragment of Noah's Ark in the reliquary. I had 2 thoughts on this --
a) You'd think that with Ararat right there they could have carried a bigger chunk of ark down to the cathedral. and
b) This strengthened my belief that even though I couldn't see the mountain, that it did exist. If the ark existed, then Ararat had to exist too, right?



Edited 11 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/18 01:32 by gobbl3gook.

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Exceptionally interesting photos.
Thanks for posting.
ALLEN

Day 4, Ararat was clear, and provided a nice backdrop to photos on my all-day walk.

14) View from the top of the grand staircase to the top of the plateau adjacent to downtown.

15) Mt. Ararat with the Ararat Distillery

16) Ararat and the Yerevan skyline just before sunset. The area in the far left of the photo, left of the base of the left-volcano, is Iran. The only time I saw Iran in my travels (and I didn't know it until later, when looking at maps).

Questions, comments?

Ted in OR

BTW, I'll be leaving town for two weeks, will resume posting on about March 21.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/18 19:26 by gobbl3gook.

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