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Thirty kilometers to the east of Yerevan, and nine kilometers beyond the temple of Garni, Geghard monastery is perched above the canyon of the Azat River. Centuries before the arrival of Christianity, hermits had retreated from the world and taken refuge in the region’s naturally occurring caves. According to tradition, St. Gregory the Illuminator converted these hermits and founded the first monastery in the early 4th century. No buildings have survived from these times and the oldest existing structure is the Church of the Virgin Mary, called Astvatsatsin, constructed in 1215 by the Zakarian family. In former times, the monastery has been known as ‘the monastery of the seven churches’, the ‘monastery of the forty altars’ and Ayrivank, ‘the monastery of the caves’. Each of these names gives an indication of the sizeable monastic community that had developed as more hermits’ dwellings were carved into the soft stone of the Azat canyon. The current name of the monastery, Gheghardavank, means the ‘Monastery of the Holy Lance’ and refers to one of the spears said to have pierced the body of Christ. This spear was once kept at Geghard but is now housed in the treasury of Etchmiadzin (another spear, the Spear of Longinus is kept at the Weltliche Schatzkammer of the Hofburg in Vienna, Austria). Adjacent to the Church of the Virgin Mary is a rock-hewn church with a natural spring that was known to be a holy place since long before the construction of the Geghard complex; its waters are believed to keep the skin youthful.