CHAPTER XI To Ararat 143 CHAPTER XII Ascent of Ararat 156 CHAPTER XIII The Heart of Ararat 179 CHAPTER XIV Return to Erivan 200 CHAPTER XV At Erivan 206 CHAPTER XVI Edgmiatsin and the Armenian Church 228 CHAPTER XVII To Ani and to Kars 316 CHAPTER XVIII Ani, and the Armenian Kingdom of the Middle Ages 334 CHAPTER XIX Kars 393 CHAPTER XX Across the Spine of Armenia 409 CHAPTER XXI Geographical 421 CHAPTER XXII Statistical and Political 446 LIST OF PLATES Ararat from Aralykh Frontispiece Trebizond from above the Head of the Western Ravine To face page 12 Trebizond: Hagia Sophia 24 Trebizond: Façade of Hagia Sophia on the South 25 Plain of the Rion from the Southern Slopes of Caucasus: Kutais in the Foreground 46 View North from the Zikar Pass Back to page 52 View South from the Zikar Pass 53 Safar: St. Saba from the West 62 Safar: Porch of St. Saba 63 Akhaltsykh from the Road to Akhalkalaki To face page 65 Castle of Khertvis 76 Vardzia, the Troglodyte City 80 Mount Abul from Akhalkalaki 92 Summer Pavilion at Gorelovka 109 Alagöz from the Plain of Alexandropol 122 Alexandropol from the Armenian Cemetery 125 Ararat from near Aramzalu 153 Great Ararat from above Sardar Bulakh 165 Our Kurd Porters on Ararat 167 Akhury: The Great Chasm from Aralykh 179 Akhury: Inside the Great Chasm 194 Erivan and Ararat from the North 208 Erivan: Interior of the Kiosque of the Sirdars 216 Edgmiatsin: The Great Court and the Cathedral 243 Edgmiatsin: Ceremony of the Consecration of the Katholikos--Anointing with Oil from the Beak of a