Khor Virap is the image by which Armenia is most often recognised: a compact walled monastery on a hillock in the middle of a wide plain, with the twin summits of Mount Ararat filling the horizon behind it. The mountain lies across a closed border, which gives the view its particular charge. The name means deep pit, and it refers to what lies beneath the church. Armenian tradition holds that Gregory the Illuminator was imprisoned here for many years before converting the king and, with him, the kingdom, an event that made Armenia one of the first states to adopt Christianity. Visitors descend to the underground chamber by a narrow iron ladder set into a shaft, one at a time, emerging into a small bare cell where candles burn. Above ground, the monastery is a quiet complex of church, courtyard and walls, much visited on Sundays and for weddings and baptisms. Doves are released from the terrace for good fortune. Filmed in 4K, with aerial views that set the buildings against the mass of Ararat, the programme suits strands on sacred sites, Christian history and the Caucasus.
