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There's an old saying that the Armenians have their minds in the west and their hearts in the east. Perched on the cultural boundary between Europe and Asia, the capital of Armeniam, Yerevan, is an ideal destination for the traveler who is looking for the exotic in a familiar setting.
It's estimated that there are 9 million Armenians in the world, but only 1/3 live in their homeland – a country much smaller than its historic reach. Today it is bordered on the north by Georgia, on the east by Azerbaijan, and on the south and west by Iran and Turkey, surrounded by southwestern Asia.
Two thousand years ago, Armenia stretched from the Mediterranean to the Caspian seas, but centuries of defeats have moved the boundaries inward. In the years around World War I, hundreds of thousands of Armenians died or emigrated.
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