Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as a state religion, in 301 AD, and within hours of crossing the border I understood I had underestimated what that actually means here. Monasteries are everywhere: on forested ridges, above deep canyons, carved into cliffs. I came for them. I was not disappointed.

Haghpat Monastery was founded in 976 AD by Queen Khosrovanuysh, sitting on a plateau above the Debed canyon. The twin powerhouse to nearby Sanahin: rival schools, rival scriptoriums, rival reputations.

At its peak Haghpat Monastery housed over 500 monks with a famous library and schools of grammar, philosophy, theology, music, and medicine. It was the exterior I couldn't stop photographing: the defensive walls, the bell tower, the stone roofs. I wandered around and around. This was the quintessential monastery, exactly what I had come to Armenia to find.

Sanahin Monastery was founded slightly earlier, around 966 AD, by the same queen. The name means "this one is older than that one," a quiet dig at Haghpat. Also a major medieval centre of learning, with its own scriptorium, library, and academy.

Inside Sanahin I barely moved. The floor of the gavit, the antechamber, is paved with engraved tombstones: clergy, nobility, and patrons buried beneath your feet. A thousand years underfoot. The light was extraordinary.

The Sanahin complex consists of sacred and civil structures built in different periods. It includes churches, narthex halls, scriptoria (libraries), and mausoleums.

Akhtala Monastery began as a defensive fortress before becoming a religious centre, set on a plateau above a river and partially surrounded by old fortress walls. Its 13th-century frescoes cover much of the interior, something rare in Armenian churches, blending Armenian and Georgian architectural styles.

At Odzun Monastery, a 6th-century domed basilica of pink stone sitting in the centre of the village, my timing was impeccable. A folk dance festival was underway outside the church, women and girls in traditional dress performing on the grass.

Dilijan gets called the Switzerland of Armenia for its forested mountains and alpine air, and you can see why the moment you arrive. The town itself has a single cobblestone lane, Sharambeyan Street, where old wooden-balconied houses have become guestrooms, workshops, cafés, and craft shops.

Goshavank Monastery was founded in 1188 by Mkhitar Gosh, a medieval Armenian scholar and jurist who wrote the country's first legal code. The complex includes several churches, a bell tower, a book depository, and former school buildings.

Haghartsin Monastery is tucked deep in the forest at the end of a long, winding road through Dilijan National Park. The name translates roughly as "soaring eagle." Legend says an eagle was seen circling the dome during the monastery's consecration.

Sevanavank Monastery, perched on a rocky peninsula above Lake Sevan. Founded in the 9th century, only two black-stone churches remain now, surrounded by khachkars and open sky. Lake Sevan is the largest freshwater lake in the Caucasus; Armenians call it the Pearl of Armenia.

kKhachkars for the first time: intricately carved Armenian cross-stones, each one slightly different.

The Soviet fingerprints are still visible if you know where to look, and I was looking. The broad boulevards, the scale of the public squares, the statues: serious figures in stone and bronze that carry the particular gravity of monuments built to make a point.

Yerevan is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, founded in 782 BC as the Urartian fortress of Erebuni, decades before the rise of Rome. It is home to just over a million people and has been Armenia's capital through empires, Soviet rule, and independence.

Etchmiadzin Mother Cathedral is sometimes called the Vatican of Armenia, on a considerably smaller scale but with the same weight. This is the mother church of the Armenian Apostolic Church, founded around 301–303 AD just after Armenia became the first Christian nation. The complex includes the cathedral, the Catholicos's residence, monastic buildings, a theological seminary, and several museums.

Khor Virap Monastery sits at the foot of Mount Ararat, directly against the closed Turkish border. The name means "deep dungeon." Saint Gregory the Illuminator was thrown into a pit here for refusing to renounce his faith and stayed there for thirteen years, kept alive by a Christian woman who lowered bread down to him. Eventually the king fell ill, Gregory healed him, the king converted, and Armenia became the first Christian nation on earth.

Azat Reservoir: Sitting at 1,050 metres above sea level in the basalt-walled gorge south of Yerevan. Built in 1976 to irrigate the Ararat Valley, it now serves a quieter second purpose: a place of stillness, dramatic cliffs, and water that holds the colour of the sky. Covering 2.85 square kilometres and holding 70 million cubic metres of water.

Lavash is Armenia's bread. Thin, soft, blistered, baked against the inside wall of a tonir, the traditional clay oven sunk into the ground. It's been made here for thousands of years, traditionally by women working together, three generations sometimes, mixing, rolling, slapping the dough onto the hot clay, peeling it off seconds later. 

Garni Temple is the only standing Greco-Roman temple in the entire former Soviet Union. Built in the 1st century AD by King Tiridates I, perched on a cliff above the Azat River gorge, dedicated to the Armenian sun god. The same king who imprisoned Gregory the Illuminator was the great-great-grandson of the king who built Garni (Tiridates I).

Zvartnots Cathedral built in the 7th century, once a three-tiered circular cathedral 45 metres tall, brought down by an earthquake in the 10th century and left in ruins for a thousand years. What remains stands in an open field, Mount Ararat rose clean on the horizon, twin-peaked and snow-capped.