Vorotan, Syunik (west)

Worotan (Armenian Որոտան ), other transcription Vorotan, until 1968 Urud, is a village and a rural municipality ( hamaynkner ) in the Syunik province near südarmenischen Sissian. Until its destruction in the 1980s, there was a medieval Muslim cemetery in the village. The grave stones had importance due to their going back to pre-Islamic period figural reliefs.

Location

39.48861111111146.141388888889Koordinaten: 39 ° 29 ' 19 " N, 46 ° 8' 29" O

Worotan situated on 1433 meters in the valley of the river of the same name about 14 kilometers southeast of the provincial capital Sissian. The tall, covered only with grass surrounding hills are broken by valleys. They are used as pasture. Occur on the slopes produced rugged basalt cliffs that form shaped by basalt columns vertical cliff edges in places.

The Worotan flows from Sissian in a southeasterly direction in a deep valley that narrows at the monastery Vorotnavank, two kilometers before the village Worotan to a canyon with steep rock walls. South of the monastery, the valley is wider and can accommodate kleinparzellierte vegetable fields on the shore. Just before the road reaches about one kilometers after Vorotnavank a bridge over the river, a road branches off to the east, is carrying half a mile to the village on the left bank. The main road runs parallel to the right side of the river, bypassing the hill from Vorotnaberd, the fortress of the military leader David Bek († 1728), on its western flank. From the south of hidden on the east side of the fortress hill location on another track is reached, the crossing of a bridge built in 1855 in inscriptions of the river.

Townscape

In the census of 2001, the official population was given as 283. In January 2009, lived according to official statistics in Worotan 302 inhabitants.

The predominantly single-storey small farmhouses, some two-storey houses with a long wooden facades and cattle sheds are scattered in the valley between the trees on the eastern riverbank. Here only Azeris lived until they were expelled in the early 1990s from 1988 and finally by the war over Nagorno -Karabakh and made ​​way for Armenians who came as refugees from Azerbaijan. Cattle and sheep continue to form in addition to the modest field crops the livelihoods from agriculture.

From the Soviet period the semi-finished ruins of a spa is left that could not be completed due to lack of funds. There is a pool with warm water below the castle hill and 100 meters north of the bridge. However, known are the thermal springs Shamb with a pond a few miles south.

The only large solid building in Worotan the school. The bridge made of rough-hewn basalt stones, which spans the river with a pointed arch, was commissioned by Melik Tangi, a nobleman from the nearby west of Sissian place Brnakot in order.

Muslim cemetery

Urud the former Azerbaijani village name was in the historical region Sangesur. The medieval Muslim cemetery Uruds is of historical importance because it contained grave stones with exceptionally many figural reliefs until its destruction. A grave stone with the outer shape of a ram is designed on one side with a lively scene of riders and border people. The Russian art historian V. Sysoyev reported in 1927 a large cemetery with grave stones in Urud of which represented many sheep and worshiped by the local population. The most grave stones that also show hunting scenes, daily life and mythical figures, from the 15th to the 17th centuries.

A zoomorphic grave stones that depict sheep and horses and can achieve nearly life-size, are common in the southern Caucasus region, in eastern Turkey, and up in the Iranian province of Azerbaijan. They are a sign of the cultural influence of the immigrant from North Asia Turkic peoples. Even after the Islamization began in the 8th century the region remained in popular belief of many Muslims, as well as Armenian Christians get north Asian beliefs. Arabic inscriptions on the grave stones refer to certain spiritual beings ( ongun, onqon ) which occur in the mythology of North Asian shamanism. The Turkic immigrants on the territory of Armenia and Azerbaijan have therefore already spread their culture in pre-Islamic times. Pre-Islamic worship motives are also the bird of prey holding a sacrificial lamb in its talons, a single man with arms raised and sun symbols. The word " Agvan " occurs more than once as the name of a tribe or clan ( Albania ) ago.

In 1961 the grave stones were still found, from the 1970s, it gradually disappeared. Some grave stones in which the Muslim inscriptions were scraped off and replaced by Christian sign of the cross, appeared in public places in the provincial capital Sissian.

Grave stone from the 15th century. Today at the National History Museum in Baku. On display are two carpet weaver and her loom in the middle.