Geghard
Chapels, tombs and cells carved directly out of a solid cliff, prized for acoustics that turn a single voice into a choir.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Geghard monastery near Yerevan asks why a single hummed note in the upper burial chamber comes back sounding like a chorus, in a room that was carved out of the mountain rather than built up from it. It follows the thirteenth-century stonecutters working for the Armenian prince Prosh Khaghbakian, who cut inward through solid volcanic tuff with hammer and chisel, unable to test-fit or undo a single mistake. It also reaches back three centuries earlier to the monastery's origins around a sacred spring, and forward to the cathedral raised outside the cliff by two general brothers. Hum a low note yourself in the upper chamber and listen for what happens to it.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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