The land of 'shouting stones' and Biblical reminiscences, of rough stones carved like lace and eternal snow-capped peaks, the land of longed-for ideals and visionary struggles, Armenia is the motherland of one of the most ancient peoples in the Near East, the bearer of a heritage of culture, art and civilization well beyond proportion to their numbers, the extent of their land and their political power.

Hayastan, yerkir drakhtavayr (Armenia, paradisiacal land), with clear reference to the Biblical narrative on the origins of humankind, is a concept deeply rooted in the Armenian soul. The immense dome of Ararat is the omnipresent point of reference in the Armenian consciousness. The cult of light, expressed in a great variety of forms since remotest an-tiquity, pervades the Armenian Christian liturgy with its own special impetus.

With its crystalline forms, its geometrically defined spaces, its unique dome, shunning any tonal or stylistic rhetoric yet dominated by a dizzying vertical impetus, the architecture of this land is perhaps the most felicitous plastic ex-pression of Armenian spirituality. The khachkar, the typical and singular expression of Armenian decorative sculpture, is the crowning achievement here for its relationship to the primordial elements: rock/stone, the solidity of the cosmos, and earth, whence germinates the Tree of Life.

Throughout their historical development the Armenians have demonstrated a special attachment to their language, which they call metzask'anch', the "all wonderful". The book, whether handwritten or printed, is the quintessen-tial venue that allows spoken and written language to endure through time, and the Armenians have always held this object in special esteem, as they also see it as a guarantee of long self-memory.