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[[Image:DCP 4427.jpg|thumb|The main [[church building]] in [[Echmiadzin]].]]

Today we caught a rickety old bus to the nearby town of [[Echmiadzin]]. The Armenian equivalent to the [[Vatican]], this is the home of the Supreme Catholicos (leader) of the [[Armenian Apostolic Church]]. The people of [[Armenia]] adopted [[Christianity]] in the early 4th Century; the story is really quite unusual... King Trdates III of Armenia wanted to marry Hripsime, a Christian woman, but she refused because he was was a pagan. So, in a fit of rage, he had her stoned to death. After this, he went mad, and the only person who could cure him was a Christian named [[Gregory the Illuminator|Gregory]] who had been imprisoned in a well for 12 years for his faith. After recovering from his madness, Trdates converted to Christianity, and so did the rest of the country. The Armenian Apostolic Church belongs to the [[Eastern Oriental]] group of churches after breaking away from the churches of Rome and Greece in 504 AD, over a matter of doctrine regarding the nature of Christ's divinity and humanity...

''I've cut this from the travellogue my wife and I kept when we went travelling one year (original site [http://www.users.on.net/~graham_grove/travel_abroad/index.htm Travels abroad])