UNDER CONSTRUCTION

   The   road    S    from    the   village  of Armavir leads to Janfida (its old name).

   To        reach        Sardarapat,       pass underneath the overpass from city of Armavir and immediately turn right and back up and over the railroad lines. The road will jog right, then left, passing through the village of Norapat (since 1967 part of Hoktemberian/ Armavir) and become   the   wide  main

road leading straight to Sardarapat battle monument and museum. First village is  Hoktember (till 1935 Sardarapat, church). Turning right on the paved road in the village (W toward the village of Dzerzhinski), somewhere on the right before the cemetery is the site of the important Persian fortress of Sardari Berd.  This was built around 1810 with British technical assistance by Sardar Hosein Qoli Khan, last and best of the Persian governors of the Erevan Khanate, using stones taken from the ruins of ancient Armavir, some still bearing traces of cuneiform inscriptions.  Used as administrative center for the Sardarapat district and summer residence of the Khan of Erevan, the fortress was taken by the Russians under General Paskevich in 1828, despite stout defense by Khan Hasan, Hosein’s brother.  Almost no trace of the fortress is left, this remnant of foreign rule having been dismantled to build Soviet Armenia.