Ashtarak (Armenian: Աշտարակ [ɑʃtɑˈɾɑk]) is a town in the Ashtarak Municipality of the Aragatsotn Province of Armenia, located on the left bank of Kasagh River along the gorge, northwest of the capital Yerevan. It is the administrative centre of the province and an important crossroad of routes for the Yerevan–Gyumri–Vanadzor triangle.
The town plays a great role in the national economy as well as the cultural life of Armenia through several industrial enterprises and cultural institutions. It has developed as a satellite town of Yerevan. The nearby village of Mughni is part of the Ashtarak municipality.
As of the 2011 census, the population of the town was 18,834. However, as per the 2016 official estimate, the population of Ashtarak is 18,000.The prelacy of the Diocese of Aragatsotn of the Armenian Apostolic Church is headquartered in Ashtarak.
There is only one very average hotel in Ashtarak, but Yerevan with plenty of sleeping options is half an hour's drive away.
Public transport is the cheapest option and provides good connections.
Everything is within walking distance.
Ashtarak is located at the intersection of roads leading to Gyumri and Yerevan. Due to such a convenient location the settlement appeared here long time ago. However, it didn't play any significant role until the second half of the twentieth century, when Ashtarak acquired the status of a city and started to host Institute of physics of Armenian Academy of Sciences. The name of the city means "a tower" in Armenian.
Ashtarak does not look like the regional center nowadays: it's a sleepy town, where it's easier to meet a chicken rather than a car. A trip here is a good opportunity to escape a rush of Yerevan for a few hours.
