UNDER CONSTRUCTION

   The  road  next  skirts  an  artificial  lake (restaurants) on the outskirts, and then enters Hrazdan, (formerly Akhta), the administrative center of Kotayk, noteworthy for the Hrazdanmash plant, jewel in the crown of Armenia’s Soviet-era military-industrial complex, now struggling for a reason to exist, and

   NE of Hrazdan is  Jrarat  (formerly Randamal), incorporated in 1982 as the administrative center of a dairy complex linked to Aghavnadzor.    

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

for the Hrazdan thermal power plants, whose district heating pipes run hither and yon over a once pleasant valley. While passing the lake of Hrazdan, a spur road leads up to the left to Makravan, now an outlying neighborhood of Hrazdan and site of the Makravank monastery. There is a half-ruined 11th c. chapel, a 13th c. domed church of S. Astvatsatsin, and the lower walls of the gavit. There is also the district formerly known as Atarbekian (for an early Secret Police chief), now Vanatur, with ruins of a medieval caravansaray, Kapuyt Khach church (modern, built on early foundations) and S. Astvatsatsin church of the 19th c. (also built on early foundations), both with interesting khachkars and cemeteries nearby.

        

"VORDI ARMEN" cheese factory