Matenadaran

Institute of Ancient Manuscripts Matenadaran named after St. Mesrop Mashtots is located in Yerevan. It is one of the largest and most impressive repositories of manuscripts in the world and the largest repository of ancient Armenian manuscripts. The collection of Matenadaran manuscripts is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The institute has a museum open to visitors. The word "matenadaran" in translation from Armenian means the repository of manuscripts. The beginning of the creation of the Matenadaran collection dates back to the V century.The funds of Matenadaran include more than 17 thousand ancient manuscripts and more than 100 thousand ancient archival documents. Along with Armenian manuscripts (over 13,000), over 3,000 manuscripts are stored here in Russian, Hebrew, Latin, Arabic, Syriac, Greek, Georgian, Indian, Japanese, Persian and other languages. The repository contains more than 17000 manuscripts, 450 thousand documents, and 3000 ancient books. Here you will see the biggest Armenian book “ Msho Charyntir” (weights 28 kg) and the smallest book (19g).