Population 3 Million.
Visitors Per Year 4000,000.
Capital Yerevan.
Number Of Historic Monuments 40,000.
Languages Armenian, Russian.
Unit of Currency Armenian Dram (AMD), Prices Quoted in Euro Cost Index.
Hotel Double/Dorm Per Night, E95/15 (US$127/20).
Short Taxi Ride, E10 (US$13.3).
Internet Access Per Hour, up to E3 (US$4).
Sauna, up to E10 (US$13.30).

Armenia is Europe's easternmost oddity - an ancient Christian nation tucked up in a mountainous maze east of Turkey.

Formerly part of the USSR, Armenia had a horrible 20th century but since 2000 the economy has been booming.

Tourism is still fairly small-scale but is bounding ahead - up from barely 80,000 visitors in 2000 to 4000,000 this year.

History nuts battle mountain tracks to the finest medieval monasteries, trekkers scale 400m high peaks, nature buffs search for the ultra-rare Caucasion leopard, and everyone enjoys the potent local brandy, finely ground coffee and the easy-going what-the-heck tempo of daily life.

Armenia s one of history's great survival stories - sliced up and cut down by its enemies for centuries. Its historic symbol, Mt Ararat, has for 90 years lain just inside Turkey's borders. Armenians remember their tragic past, but rejoice that the country where the first vineyard was planted is still around to enjoy a new vintage every year.

Armenia's biggest asset is its diaspora, which is pouring in money from every part of the world to revive the ancient, long-downtrodden homeland.

Armenians from Brazil run Latin techno nights, French men and women revitalize the Ararat Valley's wine industry, farmers from California chip in to modernize agriculture, businessmen from Beirut run IT and communications start-ups and anybody with a few million to spare and an eye on the afterlife renovates a monastery or builds a chapel.

The influx is giving the once-drab capital Yerevan a cosmopolitan edge' French bistros, Russian saunas, Lebanese bakeries, Australian backpacker hostels, Italian fashion houses and Middle Eastern carpet emporiums.

• Armenia's most solemn day is 24^th April, a day to commemorate the victims of the Armenian Genocide. A solemn procession leads the Yerevan to the memorial at Tsitsernakaberd Hill just outside the capital.

• Vardavar - the national day of randomly drenching strangers with water - takes place on the third Sunday in July.

• The Blessing of the Holy Chrism ritual at Echmiadzin, Armenia's Vatican, is performed by the Catholicos (head of the Armenian Church) once every seven years. In 2008 it will be held on 28th September.

Keeping up with a round of toasts at a country banquet, for which any excuse - say, the arrival of a foreigner - is a sufficient excuse to clear the table and set up the homemade brandies and fruit liqueurs. Follow the toastmaster in clinking glasses to friendship, family and something poetically melancholy (Armenians love the emotional stuff) like the deepest, most tear-jerking memory you keep locked up in your heart. Dry your eyes and make a toast of your own.

• Lighting a candle in the rock-hewn chapels of Geghard Monastery where the holy lance from the crucifixion of Jesus was hidden for centuries.

• Puzzling over the age and purpose of Zorats Karer, Armenia's mysterious megalithic Stonehenge.

• Surrendering to cries of 'Gnome! Nstek!' ((Come! Sit!) at one of the traditional family-run barbecue restaurants.

• Marvelling at randomly sited Soviet-era relics - brooding WW11 soldiers in bronze, giant eagles in orange volcanic rock and vast cinematographer's resorts.

• Learning about the pagan Yezidi herders on the slopes of Armenia's highest peak, Mt Aragats, in the Lesser Caucasus mountains.

• Munching on marijuana-seed Christmas cake.

• The best apricots on the planet thrive here, and they are a native species (prunus armeniaca).

• Armenia's most brutal stew, khash (brown, runny and made from cow's feet) is a winter's breakfast ritual that is always accompanied by vodka. In truth, it can only be consumed with vodka.

• Traditionally, the only person not allowed to attend an Armenian wedding ceremony is the mother of the bride.

• The heaviest book in the world, the Homilies of Mush, is preserved in two halves at Yerevan's Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, the Matenadaran.

A semipagan matagh, or animal sacrifice. Many monasteries have special sacrifice altars upon which chickens and livestock (male only) are dispatched by priests to bless events such as baptism.