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Goris
ℹ️Practical info — Goris
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🌤 Weather — 5 days
📍 Nearby
Sights nearby
💡 Tips
- The town has a strict grid street layout, making it very easy to navigate on foot.
- Book taxis early if you plan to use Goris as a base to visit the Tatev Monastery.
- Bring enough cash (drams), as ATMs can occasionally run out of money on weekends.
- Look up at the surrounding slopes to spot the old cave dwellings carved into the soft rock.
🍽 Food
A traditional slow-cooked pork and wheat dish found in traditional local taverns.
Goris is famous throughout Armenia for its strong, homemade mulberry spirit.
Enjoy the region's salty cheese served alongside fresh mountain herbs at local restaurants.
🛍 Shopping · 🧘 Quiet spots
You can find excellent dried apricots and nuts at the market in the town center.
Buy bottled homemade vodka as a souvenir directly from the local vendors.
A hill above the town offering a striking view of the street grid and the surrounding rocks.
A walk along the river that flows through the city is especially relaxing in the evening.
Water temperature…
Goris sits at about 1,385 metres altitude in a valley of the Goris River in the southern Syunik Province, some 240 km south-east of Yerevan, and with around 20,000 inhabitants is one of Armenia's most pretty small towns. The present town was laid out in 1870 on a strict orthogonal plan by a German architect; its hallmarks are two-storey townhouses of rough stone with carved wooden balconies, small inner courtyards full of vines and mulberry trees and the broad Mashtots Avenue. Above all, Goris is famous for the surreal tuff pyramids, the so-called 'stone forests', that surround it, and for the ancient cave dwellings of nearby Khndzoresk, partly inhabited well into the 20th century and now linked by a modern 160-metre suspension bridge. Goris is the last Armenian stop on the strategic road towards Nagorno-Karabakh (Stepanakert), a centre of mulberry-vodka production, and the gateway to the cliff-side Tatev monastery served by 'Wings of Tatev', the world's longest reversible cableway.
- Location: Armenia
- Top sights: House Museum of Axel Bakunts · Archeological Museum · Sero Khandzradzyan Museum
- Nearby: Tatev (Halidzor) (9 km)
- Population: ~17.592 (2026)
Best time to visit & climate
The most pleasant time to visit is Jun–Aug.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avg °C | -4 | -2 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 16 | 18 | 18 | 15 | 9 | 2 | -2 |
| Rain mm | 15 | 17 | 31 | 37 | 46 | 28 | 13 | 11 | 17 | 29 | 21 | 16 |
Geography
Facts
- Goris was laid out as a planned modern city in 1870.
- The city sits at an elevation of approximately 1,370 meters.
- The medieval cave settlement of Old Goris lies on the opposite side of the river.
- The Tatev Monastery, accessible via the world's longest cable car, is nearby.
- Goris is famous for its homemade fruit brandies, especially mulberry vodka.
- The prominent Armenian writer Axel Bakunts was born here in 1899.
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Route planner — Car & Motorhome
Where do you start? We build the route here, with stops and country notes along the way.
© OpenStreetMap contributors · OpenRouteService
Sights in the town Goris (6)
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