Sevan

Province Gegharkunik, Armenia

Lake Sevan is the fifth-largest mountain lake in the world. It lies at 1,900 meters above sea level, is 78 km long, and up to 56 km wide.

Lake Sevan is embedded in a beautiful hilly landscape: To the north and east of Lake Sevan runs the Sevan Mountains, to the south the Vardenis Mountains and to the west, the lake is bordered by the Gegham Mountains. Two peninsulas, which reach into the lake on the opposite side, «divide» Lake Sevan: into the small Sevan in the north and the large Sevan in the south. At this point, the lake is only about 4 km wide.

The legend of the emergence of Lake Sevan

According to an old legend, Lake Sevan was created by a tragedy. A long time ago, when Lake Sevan did not yet exist and the whole landscape was full of green meadows and flowering fields, a girl wanted to fetch water from a spring. Everyone knew that you had to close the spring again with a stone after filling your bucket. Otherwise, the spring would bubble up and flood everything.

But the girl forgot to close the spring. And so the water was flowing incessantly over the fields and through the villages. The people lost their homes. An old man became angry and screamed: “That person who left the spring open shall be turned into a stone”. The girl immediately turned to stone. However, the water continued to flow and formed the lake that we know today as Sevan Lake.

Trips to Sevan