New locales up for viewing
THE Caucasus is a region at the border of Europe and Asia, situated between the Black and the Caspian seas. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains, and Europe’s highest mountain, Mount Elbrus. Politically, the Caucasus region is separated between its northern and southern parts.
Parlo Tours presents its new package deal for a 9D/7N visit to Greater Caucasus covering Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the South Caucasus and Tbilisi, the capital and largest city of Georgia.
The tour brings you on a walking tour of Tbilisi to the Metekhi Hill Top, which presents a nice overview of old Tbilisi. At the top is the Metekhi Church and Statue of Vakhtang Gorgasali, the founder of Tbilisi. You will then take the cable car up to the most ancient fortress in Georgia, Narikala Fort.
You will also be visiting The Abanotubani – a street (Abanos kucha) lined with public bathhouses that channel the sulphurous waters from the many hot springs in this area. The bathhouses are located below ground level with only beehive-like domes visible on the surface.
You will visit the impressive Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi, the main cathedral of the Georgian Orthodox Church in Tbilisi and the third tallest Eastern Orthodox Cathedral in the world.
An interesting activity is the border crossing from Georgia to Sheki, Azerbaijan. Walk through the Icheri Sheher street in Gah city, where the shops and cafés are built in the typical northern region Azeri–style.
Yerevan is the capital of the Armenia. Central Yerevan is a jewel of early Soviet architecture and is also known as the Pink City due to the colour of the stones used for the buildings.
The Vatican City of Armenia, The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, is the spiritual and administrative headquarters of the worldwide Armenian Church. It was one of the world’s earliest Christian churches included in the list of Unesco World Heritage Sites. Visit the Mother Cathedral, which was originally built by Saint Gregory the Illuminator in 301303AD. You will also make a photo stop at the Cascade Complex, a 572-step giant stairway in Yerevan, that houses multi-level fountains and sculptures. The Arts, meanwhile, is an unrivalled venue for any kind of event.
Baku, the capital of the Azerbaijan, has an open-air museum spangled with neolithic rock drawings at Gobustan National Park. It is an outstanding collection of over 6,000 rock engravings bearing testimony to 40,000 years of rock art.
Besides being famous for the petroglyphs, the Gobustan will treat you to some amazing landscape like the mud volcanoes that provide a quasi-lunar horizon. Ride on a four-wheel drive through the bumpy road to see the most spectacular mud volcanoes near Gobustan.
You will then board a boat and make the 30-minute trip along Baku Bay. You will be introduced to the interesting facts and legends about the largest lake in the world, better known as Caspian Sea.
There will also be a visit to the Fire Worshippers’ Temple, Ateshgah. The Zoroastrian believers who travelled from the province of Multan in India to worship here, believed that the temple was built on land where natural gas is found in abundance. The tour ends at the Yanar Dag – Burning Mountain, a natural gas fire that blazes continuously on a hillside on the Absheron Peninsula on the Caspian Sea near Baku.
Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan are well kept treasures. With a fascinating history, a plethora of attractions and relatively low prices, the region wouldn’t stay secret for long. Allow Parlo Tours to bring you to a whole new level of travel this year.
For more details, contact 03-2274 7877 or e-mail outbound@parlotours.com.my
Alternatively, visit Parlo Tours’ booths this MATTA Fair in Hall 1, Booths No.1245–1256, 1233–1244 and 1221–1232.