On the rocky bank of the Arpa River, just 12 km from Yeghegnadzor (near the Areni village), lies the Birds' Cave, a place where time seems to have paused at the threshold of antiquity. Its three chambers, covering nearly 500 m², resemble stone sanctuaries where every turn of the corridor breathes with millennia of history.
When archaeologists entered its twilight halls, it was as if they had unlocked a treasure chest: metal knives, seeds of ancient fruits, traces of grain and twisted ropes, and fossilized fragments of pottery and fabric that survived the ages. Among the most fascinating finds were dried raisins and prunes – perhaps once used in rituals – and the world's oldest leather shoe, crafted more than 5500 years ago. Beside it lay another footprint of history: a woman's skirt dating back to the 4th millennium BC, as well as an enelothic wine cellar, recognized as the oldest ever discovered. In its age, it surpasses even the first masterpieces of the earliest civilization that have survived to this day, the pyramids of Egypt.
These walls remember sacred ceremonies. People did not live here – they came to honor wine as a holy drink, a bridge between earth and sky. Step by step, under the stone arches and the soft whisper of the river, you feel as if you are touching the life of those who stood at the dawn of civilization.
Today, the Birds' Cave is more than an archaeological site – it is a portal into a world where legend and history intertwine, and Armenia reveals the heartbeat of its ancient soul.
Admission:
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2.70 USD
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per person
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