After walking all around the monastery and going through the cathedral, we got to visit the museum. We had to enter a building, then cross the Catholicos's (head of the church) courtyard to get to the museum. He has a huge personal courtyard that was well landscaped. No photos were allowed in the courtyard, but they were allowed in the museum itself.

The museum has several rooms with many items on display. We saw manuscripts and religious objects. The museum rarities includes church accessories of historical and artistic value, costumes embroidered with gold and pearls, crosses and staffs of the Catholicos, numerous ritual objects made of gold, silver, and ivory, decorated with filigree and precious stones. We saw rare antique coins and ancient manuscripts.

I'll start with a couple of items that I found interesting: an ancient carpet and a very old map of Armenia.

But let's quit beating around the bush and get to the primary artifacts. The first is the Holy Lance or spear that the centurion Longinus used to pierce Jesus during the Crucifixion. Remember, it had been at Geghard Monastery, which we visited, for 500 years before being moved to Etchmiadzin. There was no indication that its authenticity is in dispute from all that I read or heard.

Next is a bejeweled cross that sits in an impressive and ornate relic, but neither of those is the significant part. The important part is that the cross is mounted on a piece of wood, that was a part of Noah's Ark. The entire backing behind the cross is supposedly from the Ark.

Finally, you can see a another cross in another impressive relic. But the important part of this one is the smaller cross that's in the center of the larger cross. Inside, you can see a small piece of wood. It is claimed to be a piece of wood from Jesus's cross.

If anyone had asked me to guess where in the world I might find all these artifacts, I would never have guessed Armenia.