Kachkars, or stone crosses, are found everywhere in Armenia, and display a close resemblance to Celtic stone crosses found in north-west Europe..
At Lake Sevan, a freshwater lake 2000 metres high in the mountains, two policemen take the opportunity for a little aquatic relaxation. For land-locked Armenia, Lake Sevan provides its only beaches. In summer the shores are crowded with people camping and eating khorovats, an Armenian-style barbecue.
	At a wedding in the southern town of Sisian, the father of the groom lets loose with a friend. Music and dancing is deep within the Armenian soul, and it doesn't take much to get them dancing. Often described as a melancholy people, Armenians also have a penchant for a good time.
At the Geghard monastery, completely hewn out of stone by the monks who first came here, a woman lights a candle and prays. The Armenian church, with its spiritual centre at Echmiadzin, near the Capital Yerevan, is one of the bonds that keep the Armenian diaspora so close. To a much larger extent than the Jews, the Armenians are a people in exile. What centuries of oppression began, economic chaos in modern Armenia has accelerated, with an estimated half of the country's population leaving in the last five years alone.
	A marchrutny, or share taxi, plies its trade in central Yerevan, Armenia's capital.
A flat tyre in the mountains east of Yerevan brought a chance encounter and invitation into the home of these villagers. The woman to the right is ethnic Russian, a people still seen as friends by the majority of Armenians.

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