Kachaghakaberd fortress is a mountain-top fortress in the Martakert Province of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic within Azerbaijan. It lies in the Tartar Rayon. Kachaghakaberd is translated from Armenian as magpie’s fortress. It is a combination of the words kachaghak, designating the bird “magpie,” and “berd,” meaning fortress. The first time it was mentioned was in the 8th century, when defending against an Arab invasion. It is called the magpie fortress because it was an inaccessible place, and only magpies could reach the top of the mountain.
The bare, whitish rock is like a massive heavenly stone deep in the forest. It amazes everybody with its majestic beauty and becomes more poetic. Moreover, when it looks at the whitish stone with the fortress rising out of completely green forests and reaching the blue of the sky, it seems that nature itself took care of the Kachaghakaberd fort to be impregnable.
Kachaghakaberd was an asylum for the inhabitants of the nearest villages for centuries. According to some legends, the Spram princess and her daughter overcame a hard way to reach Kachaghakaberd and found a shelter there after her husband`s death. The fortress was a significant fortification of the medieval Armenian principality of Khachen. That flourished in the High Middle Ages and is situated at over 1700 meters in height.
Moreover, it is beautifully surrounded by vertical limestone cliffs with heights of 50 to 60 meters. The fortress has a hard-to-reach entrance from the southern side of the fortress. During its prime historical period, no one could ever storm the fortress, as parts of the defensive walls remained standing. The fortress territory occupies a large area, though it seems very small. Therefore, several rooms, secret passages cut into the cliffs, gun slots, and distinct “loopholes” for throwing stones at enemies are inside its territory.
The water supply problem was overcome with a distinctive method. Two rock-cut reservoirs to store rain and meltwater are in the center of the fortress. Hence, fresh water was brought from a spring at the foot of the mountain. When you look from the top of the “Kachaghakaberd” hill, there is a pleasing panoramic view that opens to the mountains covered with thick woods and the river Tartar running beneath.
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Source: Wikipedia
