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Hanshagh is one of the oldest settlements in me region. It is situated on the left slope of the gorge of the Meydan - the fullest atributari to the Lev, on the altitude of 1700-1750 m.
The village was mentioned for the first time under the same name in 1662, in the colophon of the manuscript Typicon ("Mashtots"): "I handed this Holy Mashtots of my soul to priest David in the memory of pious Hur who was the spouse of Avazak, from the land of Tzar, from the village of Hanshagh. Whoever reads let him say "Lord have mercy, amen."
About a hundred years later (in 1763) the village is mentioned among the estates of Dadi Vank.
This village was reinhabited at the end of the XIXcent. by a few Kolani Kurdish families, later, particularly during the Soviet period they were totally assimilated.
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Gortagarak. Khachkar in the western shore of the lake. |
As regards the aboriginal population, they left the village in the middle of the XVIII cent. together with the inhabitants of many other Armenian villages.
Except for a few khachkars preserved in Hanshagh, we found no traces of a church, which should have been there. Thus in 4 km of the village on the edge of the road leading to lake Gortagarak (or Turk. Ghanligol) there is a badly weathered khachkar, with a worn inscription.
The cross is carved on the smoothened surface of a whitish marble rock. The upper parts of the stone to the left and right of the cross wings, are ornamented with wine-grapes. The smooth surface of the rock is 160x120 cm.
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