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Photo: Beko, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The most visited destination of the lake is the peninsula known as kghzi, meaning island, which it once was before Stalin had much of the water drained from the lake. The monastery is a must, for the great views it affords of the vast lake, most of which visitors never see except from this spot. The monastery is on top of the peninsula hill, and is built of crude black stone on the exterior. The interior has a beautiful old altar used for services by the new seminary down the hill. Steep, rough steps lead up to the monastery.
Sevanavank is a monastic complex located on a peninsula at the northwestern shore of Lake Sevan in the Gegharkunik Province of Armenia, not far from the town of Sevan. Initially the monastery was built at the southern shore of a small island. After the artificial draining of Lake Sevan, which started in the era of Joseph Stalin, the water level fell about 20 metres, and the island transformed into a peninsula. At the southern shore of this newly created peninsula, a guesthouse of the Writers Union of Armenia was built. The eastern shore is occupied by the Armenian president's summer residence, while the monastery's still active seminary moved to newly constructed buildings at the northern shore of the peninsula.
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