Yenokavan is situated in the north-east of Armenia, 10 kilometers from the town of Ijevan. It is located at a height of 1,000-1,300 meters, surrounded by hills, and close to a forest-covered gorge about 100 meters deep that ranges for about five kilometers.
The gorge of Yenokavan has several caves – from 10 to 30 meters long and about 15 meters wide.
The seal of mankind is put here on the walls of the cave – through dozens of beautiful carvings that depict man and beast side by side as well as images of large and small crosses. It is due to these crosses that some people visit Lastiver today as a place of pilgrimage.
From Pre-Christian times the caves of Lastiver were a sacred place, to which testify the numerous cave pictures. But in the Middle Ages, during the Tartar-Mongolian invasions the caves of Lastiver served as a hiding-place for the village inhabitants.
