The town of Sisian is located in a river valley in the midst of the Zangezur Mountains. About an hour's hike to the northeast of the town, in the middle of empty alpine fields, there stands the oldest set of standing stones in the world. Today, the two volunteers already living in the area welcomed us to Sisian by taking us to see them.
We took a taxi up the bumpy dirt road out of town. He let us out on the side of the road, and after about a 15 minute walk along a cowpath through the fields, we arrived at Zorats Qarer- also called Qarehunj- Armenian Stone Henge.
There is some mystery surrounding these standing stones- no one really knows what they were fore. Some of the stones have holes drilled through them, a few inches in diameter. Because of these holes, it's been speculated that perhaps Zorats Qarer is an ancient observatory. If this is correct, that makes it the oldest observatory in the world.
Whatever it is, it's really awesome. During the summer months there is a small information center-come-gift-shop a little ways away from the standing stones, but now it's all closed up for the winter. It was just us and the stones, we could wander among them, looking through the little holes that has been drilled in them so long ago, and admire the magnificent views of the surrounding mountains.
I have read that you can camp in the wild fields surrounding the standing stones. It's already far too cold at night to consider sleeping outside this year, but I'm looking forwards to many camping trips next summer.
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