We had just left the Geghard Monastery when we pulled back off the road. I was actually glad for an odd reason. I had seen piles of dried brush along the road on many occasions. The brush was never near any trees or shrubs that looked like the sticks might have come from their being pruned. I was hoping to find out about the brush piles, and I did. You can see this brush pile below.

It turned out that we had stopped at a Lavash Bakery. It was just a simple shed alongside the road, but it was a great stop for us. Lavash is a traditional, soft flatbread made from flour, water, and salt. It may or may not be leavened. It's a very simple process. The dough is rolled out into a thin sheet through their hands-on process, then tossed in the air a few times, and then baked in a tandoor or clay oven. The sticks along the road are the fuel for their bakery oven.

Lavash is an ancient bread and a staple in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Turkey. It can be eaten as bread or used for wraps, scooping dips, or cradling kebabs. The making of lavash can be a communal event for families or communities. But in this case, it was a roadside bakery.

You can see the process below. These two women were doing all the work in making the bread, but the others probably helped to bring wood for the fire and bring more ingredients. I don't know how long these two women have been doing this, but they were real pros at it.

Below, you can see the bread stuck to the side of the clay oven, to bake.

The funniest moment at this stop was when one of our fellow travelers asked a question. She asked our guide how the two women could crouch on their knees for so long without being in pain. Our guide asked the women the question and they both laughed and laughed. It turned out that there are holes in the floor and they are standing in the holes, not kneeling. That puts them close to the oven.