AMARAS.ORG: Amaras Monastery, Nagorno Karabakh Republic

Amaras.org is a web resource dedicated to Amaras, one of the most ancient state-founded Christian monasteries in history. It belongs to the Armenian Apostolic Church and is located in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, on the territory of Armenia's historical province of Artsakh. Amaras was established in the 4th century by St. Gregory the Enlightener, who converted Armenia to Christianity in 301 AD, thus turning it into the first Christian kingdom in the world. The inventor of the Armenian alphabet St. Mesrob Mashtots later founded at the Amaras Monastery the first school that began using his script in circa 410 AD.