Vayots Dzor

Vayots Dzor is a province in southern Armenia. Its administrative center is Yeghegnadzor.¹

In the Areni-1 cave, near the village of Areni, an Armenian, Irish and American team found a complete winery from about 4100 BC, with a clay pressing basin, fermentation vessels and storage jars. It is the oldest such complex known. The team began to clear the cave in 2007 and published the main report in 2011. The team also found a leather shoe, stuffed with grass, dated to about 3500 BC.²

The monastery of Noravank stands in a narrow canyon of red cliffs about twelve kilometers from Areni. It dates from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.²