Yerevan, a guide

… There have been many cities in Armenia in the course of its history, including legend-shrouded Ani (one of Armenia's ancient capitals) but none has or could have been built within a few decades and as finely as Yerevan.

The city of Yerevan, though as old as Babylon and Rome, is dear to us not so much as a forefather, or father, but as a son and grandson reared by us.

What we call Yerevan today - Lenin Square, the main thoroughfare now under construction, the new residential districts in the north and south-west, each as large as old Yerevan of the 1920s, the new streets, the State Opera House, the Matenadaran and the statue of David of Sassoon - is incomparably younger than Soviet Armenia and some of its districts are even younger than our children and grandchildren.

… In 1968, we celebrated the 2759th anniversary of Yerevan. Our guests from all over the world drank Armenian wines and cold beer and were not always aware that about two and a half thousand years ago the first inhabitants and guests of the fortress town of Erebuno had also drunk wine and beer in the same place.