Armenian Khachkars: Stone Crosses, Memory and Medieval Craft

Armenian khachkars are among the most distinctive works of medieval Christian art anywhere: upright slabs of stone carved with a cross rising from a rosette and surrounded by vines, pomegranates and interlace so fine it can resemble lacework. Each was made by hand, each is different, and more than 50,000 are recorded in Armenia, serving as memorials, prayers and acts of protection all at once. On Day 18 of Odyssey’s 22-day small group tour of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, the group visits the Noratus field of khachkars on the road from Lake Sevan to Yerevan, and later days add carved crosses at Haghpat, Geghard and Echmiadzin. This article looks at khachkars as craft, memory and landscape, as one thread in the route explained in our Caucasus itinerary for mature travellers.

Armenian khachkars: what a cross-stone is, and what it was for

The word khachkar means cross-stone, from khach for cross and kar for stone. It describes a carved memorial stele, usually a metre or two in height, that carries a cross as its central motif. The first true khachkars appeared in the ninth century, during a period of Armenian revival after liberation from Arab rule, and the oldest with a known date was carved in 879, though earlier and cruder examples exist. From then on the form spread across the country and stayed in use for a thousand years.

Khachkars were never simply gravestones. Many were raised for the salvation of the soul of a living or dead person, others to commemorate a military victory or the building of a church, and others still as protection against disaster. Only a minority of Armenian gravestones are khachkars at all. In 2010 UNESCO inscribed the symbolism and craftsmanship of khachkars on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, recognising that what survives is not only stone but a living tradition of skill and belief.

The design has a grammar. The cross most often rests on a rosette or solar disc, sometimes described as a wheel of eternity, and the rest of the face is filled with leaves, grapes, pomegranates and bands of interlace. Some khachkars add saints or animals, and a rare type known as the Amenaprkich, meaning Holy Saviour, places the figure of the crucified Christ on the cross. Most of those date from the late thirteenth century.

How Armenian khachkars are made: the stonecarver’s craft

The technique is described in some detail in UNESCO’s account. Carvers worked local stone with chisels, dies, sharp pens and hammers, then ground the carved surface with fine sand. Small breaks and rough patches were repaired with clay or lime plaster, and the finished stone was painted. It was then set up at a small religious ceremony, where it was blessed and anointed, after which it was believed to protect, to intercede and to keep the memory of the person it served.

The skill passed within families or from master to apprentice, which is why regional styles are so distinct and why individual carvers could improvise within a tradition. The art reached a peak between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, and some of the carvers are known by name. The Holy Saviour khachkar at Haghpat was carved in 1273 by the master Vahram, a stone at Goshavank was carved in 1291 by Poghos, and a khachkar at Geghard dated 1213 is attributed to the masters Timot and Mkhitar. These are rare instances of individual authorship in a form that was otherwise mostly anonymous.

For a learning-led traveller, this is the most useful way to look at a khachkar. It is not a monument to be photographed in passing, but an object with a method: a slab chosen, a design laid out, thousands of small cuts made by hand, and a ceremony to finish it. Standing close to one, you can often see where a chisel slipped, where a pattern was adjusted to fit the stone, and where the carver ran out of space and improvised.

Noratus and the Lake Sevan route: a field of a thousand stones

The place to see khachkars in numbers is Noratus, a village in Gegharkunik Province on the western shore of Lake Sevan, roughly 90 kilometres north of Yerevan. Its medieval cemetery holds about 900 khachkars, carved between the ninth and seventeenth centuries, with most dating to the thirteenth century onwards. It is the largest surviving collection of its kind, a status it holds in part because the Julfa cemetery in Nakhchivan, which once held thousands of khachkars, was lost between 1998 and 2005.

On the tour, Noratus comes on Day 18, after a morning that takes in Haghartsin Monastery and the ninth-century monastery on the shore of Lake Sevan. It makes an instructive pairing with our article on Lake Sevan, its monasteries and the route to Yerevan, since the same high, open landscape that frames the lake also frames the field. At around 1,900 metres above sea level, the stones stand in long grass on a plateau, close together and leaning at slight angles, with the lake beyond.

Walking among them is a different experience from seeing a single khachkar in a museum. The stones vary in height, colour and condition, and the range of styles is wide: some are simple and severe, others crowded with carved detail, a few showing scenes. You can watch the tradition change across the centuries, including the revival of khachkar carving in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when oriental influences seeped into Armenian art under Safavid rule. One story told locally is that villagers once put helmets on the khachkars and swords at their sides so that, seen from a distance, they would look like an army when Tamerlane approached. It is a legend rather than a record, but it captures how the stones are thought of here: as presences, not objects.

How much walking is there at Noratus?

Expect gentle but uneven walking on open ground. The Caucasus tour is rated Level 2 (Moderate), which means three to five hours of physical activity a day, equivalent to walking up to eight kilometres on uneven ground. At Noratus the stones stand in a grassy field with no formal steps, so the challenge is footing on uneven turf rather than distance, and the wind off the lake can be cool at this altitude. Your Odyssey Program Leader and local guide will set a pace that suits the group, and our guide to what a 22-day Caucasus journey involves explains how the walking is spread across the tour.

When is the best time to see the khachkars at Noratus?

Late spring and early autumn suit Noratus well, which is why Odyssey’s Caucasus tour departs in May and October. At around 1,900 metres the air is cool, particularly in the morning and when the wind picks up, so layers and a windproof jacket are sensible. Low, raking sunlight brings out the relief of the carving best, so a clear late-afternoon light is the ideal, though the group’s timing on the day is fixed by the wider itinerary.

From Haghpat to Geghard: khachkars and the wider stonework of medieval Armenia

Noratus is the largest collection, but it is not the only place on the route where you can see the craft. On Day 17 the group visits the monasteries of Haghpat and Sanahin in the forested hills near Alaverdi, both inscribed by UNESCO in 1996, and Haghpat is home to the Holy Saviour khachkar carved by Vahram in 1273. Seen there, beside the monastery buildings, the khachkar looks less like a stray monument and more like part of an architectural language.

The link between khachkar carving and the rock-cut architecture of Geghard is closer still. Geghard, on Day 21, is a monastery partly carved out of the adjacent mountain, surrounded by cliffs, and its rock-cut church, carved around 1240, was cut from a cave with a spring. The name means spear, after the relic said to have been kept there, and khachkars and cross reliefs are carved into the walls and cliff faces of the complex. It was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2000 together with the Upper Azat Valley. What you see at Geghard is the same feeling for carved stone applied at architectural scale, from a single slab to a church cut into a mountain.

Is the visit to Geghard physically demanding?

It is moderate, with short distances but some steps and uneven ground. Geghard involves walking across a stone courtyard, climbing a few flights of steps and moving through dark, low rock-cut interiors, all within a compact site, and it sits within the Level 2 (Moderate) rating that applies across the tour. Day 21 also includes Garni and Echmiadzin, so the day is full rather than strenuous, and your Program Leader will set the pace.

The same day includes Echmiadzin, the seat of the Catholicos of All Armenians and the mother church of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Its cathedral is traditionally dated to 301 to 303, following the conversion of Armenia under King Tiridates III and Gregory the Illuminator, and the core of the present building dates from the late fifth century. Together with its neighbouring churches and the ruins of Zvartnots it was inscribed by UNESCO in 2000. Echmiadzin matters here because it is the spiritual centre of the church that the khachkar served. A carved cross-stone stands behind the cathedral, a reminder that even at the heart of the church, the khachkar is part of the setting. Readers who want the fuller treatment of Armenian church building can turn to our guide to buildings and Christianity in Armenia, and to our overview of Armenia as an ancient civilisation.

Are khachkars still carved today?

Yes. The art of khachkar carving has seen a rebirth in the twentieth century as a symbol of Armenian culture, and working carvers still make new stones, including in workshops in Yerevan. Hundreds of modern khachkars stand in cities around the world, many of them memorials to the victims of the Armenian Genocide. The methods described by UNESCO, including hand carving and the master-to-apprentice transmission of patterns, remain the core of the craft, which is one reason that seeing the medieval examples in the field at Noratus feels so continuous with the present.

Why khachkars belong on this route

The 22-day journey moves through three countries with three distinct approaches to stone, from the caravanserais of Sheki to the rock-cut chambers of Georgia’s southern frontier and the cross-stones of Armenia. Khachkars are the point at which the craft, the faith and the landscape meet most directly. They show what a community chose to carve when it wanted something to last, and the field at Noratus shows what the result looks like after a thousand years of wind, snow and grass.

For travellers who want to understand a culture through what it made rather than only what it built, the khachkar is a very good place to begin, and the Noratus field is a very good place to see it. You can explore the full route, from the Caspian shore at Baku to the Ararat plain beyond Yerevan, on Odyssey’s Small Group Tour to the Caucasus | Armenia Azerbaijan Georgia.