Chapter 37

The craziest thing about our Lance adventures was that they led us to various parts of the world, different countries and also continents.
Now we were going to Armenia, in Asia to an old city of Vagharshapat.
There are lots of fun sites to visit here like visiting the Historical and Ethnographic Museum of Etchmiadzin which is next to the Central Square in Etchmiadzin and where public transportation and taxis usually stop to drop the city’s visitors off, is the Etchmiadzin Municipality building.
Or going to the Treasury Museum in Etchmiadzin
This museum is unique and is the pride of all Armenians and Christians around the world.
Also, the Archaeological Ruins of Zvartnots Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site is located in the middle of vineyards and trees dazzled with apricots and cherries while Ararat peeks in from the background.
Visit the Hidden House Museum of Poet Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, a traditional Armenian-designed house is not the easiest place to find despite being located right in the center of the city. Hovhannes Hovhannisyan was a famous poet and translator of classical Armenian literacy from Etchmiadzin during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Also the Khoren Ter-Harutyunyan Museum, which is located very close to Etchmiadzin Cathedral is this small and charming museum that showcases elaborate statues, sculptures, and paintings.
The Mher Abeghyan Museum located in Central Komitas Square, the Mher Abeghyan Museum opened in the early 1990s and it showcases the paintings of Mher Abeghyan who was born in Vagharshapat and dedicated his life to teaching art in Yerevan and his hometown.
But we were here for the Etchmiadzin Cathedral is one of the oldest Christian churches that is located in Etchmiadzin. In 301 AD, Saint Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral was founded and this cathedral is still being marvelled at by tourists and people every year, we were made to believe my Mara's source and Intel that want we sought was in there, waiting for us.
The Etchmiadzin Cathedral (also spelt "Echmiatsin,” “Echmiadzin,” and “Edjmiadsin”) is located in the city of Etchmiadzin (also referred to as Vagharshapat), Armavir Province in what is now present-day Armenia. It is geographically situated near the fertile valley of the Aras River, and it is not too far away from Mount Ararat, Armenia's capital, Yerevan, and Khor Virap Monastery. It is the spiritual centre of the Armenian people and the administrative centre of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Called the “Mother Cathedral of Etchmiadzin” by Armenians, the cathedral is among the most ancient examples of Christian architecture anywhere in the world. Many scholars contend Etchmiadzin Cathedral is the oldest cathedral in Armenia, and it is widely believed that it is thus the oldest Christian cathedral in the world. The cathedral was designated as a part of a UNESCO World Heritage zone in 2000 CE — the zone also encompasses St. Gayane Church, St. Hripsime Church, and the archaeological ruins of Zvartnots Cathedral — due to its importance in Armenian religious and cultural history.
The area surrounding Etchmiadzin Cathedral has been inhabited by various peoples since prehistoric times. Stone, Bronze, and Iron Age archaeological sites are located in or close to the city and cathedral. The area was well-known by the ancient people of Urartu; Etchmiadzin is referred to as "Kuarlini" in an Urartian cuneiform inscription, and the oldest documented information concerning Etchmiadzin's environs date from the reign of King Rusa II. The city of Vagharshapat — today more commonly referred to as “Etchmiadzin” — was founded during the reign of the Arsacid king Vagharsh I (r. 117-140 CE). Although it was the capital city of Armenia for a time, the city's fortunes ebbed as it was attacked and destroyed during the Sasanid invasions of 368-369 CE. Soon thereafter, Vagharshapat was replaced as the political capital by Dvin in the 4th century CE. The city, however, remained prosperous due to its ideal position on the trade routes between the Roman Empire and Sasanid Persia. During the reign of Tiridates the Great (r. c. 298 - 330 CE), Christianity was adopted as Armenia's state religion, and Tiridates himself converted in 301 CE in the royal palace at Vagharshapat according to legends and Armenian historians.
The subsequent construction of Etchmiadzin Cathedral at Vagharshapat can be attributed to the life and work of Saint Gregory the Illuminator (also known as Grigor Lusavorich, c. 239 - c. 330 CE). If Armenian legends and historians are to be believed, Jesus Christ appeared to Saint Gregory the Illuminator in a vision, requesting that a cathedral be built within the ancient city. In the vision, Jesus Christ showed the exact spot where the proposed structure should lie, striking the ground with a golden hammer in his hands. Construction of Etchmiadzin Cathedral began around c. 303 CE. The cathedral was dedicated in turn to the Virgin Mary, and aptly named “Etchmiadzin” or “the descent (echnel) of the only begotten (miatsin).”
From the 5th to the mid-7th centuries CE, the city of Etchmiadzin grew quickly, developing into a major centre of culture and pilgrimage. Successive bishops, over these two centuries, guaranteed the construction of further ecclesiastical buildings in close proximity to Etchmiadzin Cathedral, stimulating an epoch of Armenian cultural fluorescence. In the 7th century CE, under the guidance of the bishop Komitas of Aghdzk, Etchmiadzin began to pull in even more pilgrims following the construction of the Church of Saint Hripsime, which was named after the virgin who had been martyred by Tiridates the Great prior to his conversion to Christianity. The church of Saint Gayane was added around 616 CE and, in the 650s CE, the completion of the splendid Zvartnots Cathedral only added to the attractions, ensuring the city of Etchmiadzin became one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Armenia. The cathedral's wealth and reputation grew in importance in tandem with that of the city, attracting pilgrims from across the Christian Near East.
In 640 CE, following the invasion and occupation of Armenia by the Arabs under the Rashidun Caliphate (632–661 CE), the position of Etchmiadzin Cathedral and the city as a major religious centre became precarious. Dvin and then Ani became Armenia's political and religious capitals, and the city of Etchmiadzin and its cathedral slowly fell into a period of decline. A major earthquake struck the region in the 10th century CE which caused the collapse of the Cathedral of Zvartnots, amongst other buildings, and the Seljuk Turks raided the area in the mid-11th century CE. By the late 13th century CE, after the onslaught of the Mongols in Armenia and Georgia, the environs surrounding the cathedral were so dilapidated that the celebrated Armenian poet Stepanos Orbelian (d. 1304 CE) felt compelled to compose his Lamentations on the Holy Cathedral of Vagharshapat.
The Cathedral of Etchmiadzin's fortunes revived, however, when the Armenian Apostolic Church decided to restore the catholicos to the site in the mid-15th century CE. The country and its Christian population endured hardship and intermittent warfare with Safavid Iran under Ottoman Turkish rule, but the cathedral was given certain economic privileges, which enabled it to function until better days arrived. Construction and restoration projects occurred in the 18th and 19th centuries CE, returning some lustre to the old cathedral. Imperial Russian rule (1827-1917 CE) gave the cathedral nearly a century of stability. While suppression returned in the early days of the USSR (1918-1949 CE), Etchmiadzin Cathedral endured and remains the “Holy Mother See of all Armenians.”
Archaeological evidence from inside the crypt of the Etchmiadzin Cathedral suggests that the cathedral was built intentionally on the site of a pagan fire altar. Ensuing excavations from 1955-to 1959 CE revealed the ruins of an old Christian church with stone and wooden interior walls. This structure was most likely the one ordered by St. Gregory the Illuminator in the early 4th century CE. The contemporary outline and shape of the cathedral, which stands at the site today, date to c. 483 CE after the then Governor of Armenia Vahan Mamikonian commissioned a renovation of Saint Gregory the Illuminator's first structure. The renovations were a compensation, perhaps, for the moving of the Armenian Apostolic Church's headquarters to Dvin in 485 CE, but other scholars suggest that a fire might have damaged the earlier structure. Etchmiadzin Cathedral was reconstructed along the lines of a square plan rather than that of the longitudinal plan of the older church and other Christian basilicas. Further renovations occurred in the 7th century CE when stone replaced the older one made of wood.
We were outside the building, and to our surprise, it wasn't as protected as we thought, maybe it was not yet related to them that the Lance might be taken from them soon, we hoped we wouldn't meet much stress, mostly spiritually, but yeah we could do this in a minute or less with the plans we had.
I was going to super speed inside the Cathedral looking to find the Lance, come back to tell the Leviathan and Mara where it was, Leviathan would open a similar vortex that brought us here, to the place it was kept we retrieve it and use another vortex out.
But things were not as they seemed.
The Lance was not here.
SONS OF HELL
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