David Hicks

Landlocked in the southern Caucasus, this is the oldest christian civilisation in the world, and to this day it's a truly devout nation. Once a much larger country, the nation found sanctuary under the Soviet regime after a brutal genocide by the Turks, a fact that the Turkish (and many other nations including, shamefully, the UK) still deny took place. Now a democratic country, it has designer shops and luxury western cars, which mix with the large number of Ladas, still the car of the people. There is a wonderful cafe culture in Yerevan, the capital, with over 500 cafes at last count. The city itself is growing rapidly but will alway lie in the shadow of Mount Ararat.