Noravank Monastery (literally “new monastery”) is a 13th-century Armenian monastery, located 122 km from Yerevan in a narrow gorge known for its tall, sheer, brick-red cliffs, directly across from the monastery made by the Amaghu River, near the town of Yeghegnadzor, Armenia.
The monastery is best known for its two-storey Surb Astvatsatsin (Holy Mother of God) church, which grants access to the second floor by way of a narrow stone-made staircase jutting out from the face of building.
Sevanavank Monastery located on a peninsula at the northwestern shore of Lake Sevan in the Gegharkunik Province of Armenia, not far from the town of Sevan, built at a height of more than 1,925 metres (6,316 feet) above sea level, 65 km (40 mi) northeast of the capital Yerevan.
Initially the monastery was built at the southern shore of a small island. After the artificial draining of Lake Sevan, which started in the era of Joseph Stalin, the water level fell about 20 metres, and the island transformed into a peninsula.
According to an inscription in one of the churches, the monastery of Sevanavank was founded in 874 by Princess Mariam, the daughter of Ashot I, who became an Armenian a decade later and oversaw the beginning of Armenia’s second golden age (862 – 977).