Photo Gallery: Nagorno Karabakh Republic

The "We Are Our Mountains" national memorial located near Nagorno Karabakh's capital city of Stepanakert depicts giant heads of an elderly couple from Artsakh, in traditinal Armenian headdress. The memorial, which is also referred to as "Grandpa and Grandma," symbolizes the tenacious attachment of the people of Artsakh to their land and culture, and points to their legendary longevity. The statute is made of Armenia's orange volcanic tuff stone and is widely regarded as one of the state symbols of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

October 2008: soon-to-be married couples lined up near the gate to the Gandzasar Monastery. The mass wedding was organized by Mr. Levon Hairapetian, a Russia-based philanthropist and representative of Armenia’s ancient Hasan-Jalalian dynasty.

In October 2008, the Gandzasar Monastery hosted an unprecedented wedding ceremony, which married 675 couples from the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

A scene from the unprecedented wedding ceremony in October 2008 which married 675 couples from the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. The brides and grooms stand near the gate to the Gandzasar Monastery, with Mount Ishkhan and the Hohanaberd Castle seen on the background.

The Mrav mountain range as seen from Gandzasar.

Gandzasar-themed experimental banknote issued by the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

The Gandzasar Monastery and other medieval Armenian ecclesiastical monuments in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic—in historical Armenia’s provinces of Artsakh, Syunik and Utik.

Position of the Gandzasar Monastery on the map of the region.

Gandzasar and Constitution: a page of the famous Constitution of Aghven (Սահմանք Կանոնական), Armenia’s first known constitutional edict. The Constitution, written in the 5th century on the territory of modern Nagorno Karabakh (in Aghven, near Gandzasar) consisted of 21 articles. It became part of the Armenian Book of Laws (Կանոնագիրք Հայոց) in the 8th century. The displayed page mentions names of 14 Armenian dignitaries who signed the Constitution, and includes the endorsement of King Vachagan the Pious. Source: Movses Kaghankatvatsi’s “History of the Land of Aghvank:” exhibit at Matenadaran (Armenia’s Institute of Ancient Manuscripts).