Tatev village, which is situated in green and yellow mountains of Syunik region, has an unbelievable energetic power. It seems that the mountains and people are one part of the nature. In this village everyone knows the history of the village by heart. These people are simple and very proud. A lot of tourists visit this village and the people here always treat them with great hospitability, and it doesn’t matter if the know those people or not. When the tourists are leaving, they always give him some home-made vodka for goodbye, but if the tourists don’t know the history of Tatev, they get nervous. Usually they start the history of Tatev with the main monastery complex.
A dream with 5,7 kilometers long wings
Far in the middle ages Tatev used to be one of the religious centers of Armenia. It had an importance of strategic, political and educational institution. The famous Tatev university was here, which was founded by Hovhan Vorotnetsi in 1390. The village is also famous with the monastery complex, which was built in the 9th century. It included three churches with several monuments. In 1931 a part of the monastery collapsed, which was reconstructed in 1970-1990s. Till now the road leading to the monastery complex is in a very bad condition. Even the best drivers are afraid to drive up the road from the Satan bridge. This is the reason why the new cable car connecting Halidzor with the Monastery is a big dream. They say that they could not believe that it is true, and the new cable car is called Wings of Tatev.
In 2008 the foundation established by Ruben Vardanyan, an Armenian living in Moscow, and his wife Veronica Zonabendi, as well as people from different nations and religions contributed to the foundation to make this project come true. The project was named revival of Tatev and was entrusted to the national competitiveness agency of Armenia to implement. The goal of this project worth of 50 million dollars is the revival of the traditions and architecture of the Tatev Monastery.
It includes modern hotels, services for tourists and the cable car going directly to the complex. The project covers the neighboring villages as well, where they will build hotels and reconstruct the roads to the main highway.
Eleven months ago the Garaventa Doppelmayer Swiss-Austrian company started to construct the cable car, which would be the longest cable car in the world. The cable car is 5,7 kilometers long. The cable car worth of 13 million Euros will not only serve the villagers of the neighboring villages for free but will also bring a lot of tourists to Armenia. The highest point of the cable car is 320 meters, the speed is 37 km/h, it can take 25 passengers, the tour lasts 11 minutes and the price of a ticket is 3.000 drams. This cable car is the longest one in the world and is longer than the ones in Sweden, Israel, California and Iran.
The Wings of Tatev project was opened and the presentation was done by the president Serzh Sargsyan and Catholicos Garegin B. The president delivered a speech dedicated to the opening. “We don’t have the goal to surprise anybody with the longest cable car in the world. Of course the goals we have with this project are modest in the world. But are very important for the Tatev and surrounding villages. This project is a part of the development strategy of Armenia and certainly will support the economic, educational and cultural life development in this region. This is one of the largest examples of cooperation between the private sector and state. The wonderful nature of Syunik has crossed the borders of the human imagination. Now it is the turn of this rope way to fly over this gorge and connect the history with the future, the culture and the business,” said the president.
The president of Karabakh Bako Sahakyan, Armenian philanthropists, as well as a lot of high rank officials were present at the opening ceremony. They were mainly impressed by the coloring of the Armenian villages. Generally this project was successful also due to the fact that it could make an image of an Armenian village and show the traditional Armenian villages, families with national dressings to tourists.
However, the villagers were not allowed to approach the ceremony as the police blocked the way and let people in with special ID documents they had been given in advance. The villagers were sad about that and said that it would be much better if they could enjoy the ceremony too. In several hours after operating the cable car it started raining. The people of Tatev said that the nature got angry at them for not letting them join the party. However, very soon the nature acted like the people of Tatev and gave a good weather again. One of the villagers said their grandfathers had been dreaming of such a cable car or bridge long ago. An old woman approached me and said that as there are many people from the city, she could invite whoever wants to her place to show a good treatment.