Pagan monument of Portacar
Status: Protected by the state
From Yerevan: 220 km / 3 hours 50 minutes
Portakar (“Umbilical Stone”) is located 12 km southeast of the city of Sisian, on the left side of the Sisian-Goris highway, at the foot of the mountain Ishkhanasar.. It is a conical projection that forms on the flat rocky terrain (approximately a few square meters) at the top of the cave. In popular beliefs, for thousands of years the monument was considered the center of the earth, where man first appeared. Portacar was revered as a symbol of reproduction, fertility and motherhood (most likely associated with the cult of the goddess Anahit – the goddess of fertility and motherhood in the Armenian pantheon).
According to tradition, infertile women performed the appropriate rituals here, after which they touched the stone with their navel and spun on them, with the hope of being cured and becoming pregnant. By making the pilgrimage, the women recovered psychologically. On the way you can also visit the Shaki Waterfall and the Zorats Karer Megalithic Complex.
