Investigations have shown that the Monastery of Tatev is directed not from North to South, as other cruciform churches, but from North to East. This may mean that astronomical observations may have been implemented here, Armenia Sputnik informs.
Tatev is constructed so that it was possible to observe stars from it. This conclusion is made by an independent researcher Vazgen Gevorgyan and Siberian State University of Geosystems and Technologies professor Yelena Gienko.
«We have been to the monasteries of Tatev, Noravank, Ayrivank, Vorotnavank and Haghartsin. We found an interesting peculiarity in Tatev. The thing is that the basis of cruciform monasteries is an equilateral square with North-South and West-East directions. Tatev monastery is located in a diagonal, and on August 11 it is directed exactly at the sunrise and receives the first sunbeams», Gienko says.
The scientists suggest that the famous «Gavazan» (the Swinging Column) may have been a unique astronomical tool.
In turn, Vazgen Gevrogyan mentions that the Armenian historian of the 19th century Stepanos Orbelyan wrote that Tatev was an observatory – a watchtower.
According to Yelena Gienko, astronomical observations took place at the 10th century Vorotnavank as well.