Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605 – 1689) was a 17th-century Flemish-French gem merchant and traveler who became famous for his accounts of six voyages to the east.
Passionate about travelling, Tavernier started out on his first journey to the Ottoman Empire and Persia in 1631. He stayed in Constantinople for eleven months, waiting for a caravan that would take him to Persia. On the trip eastwards he visited Tokat, Erzurum and Yerevan, finally reaching Isfahan. He returned by way of Baghdad, Aleppo, Alexandretta and Malta, and through Italy reached Paris in 1633.
Six more journeys followed until 1668, during which Tavernier became a dealer in precious stones, which he sold to the princes of the Orient. In 1675, Tavernier, at the behest of his patron Louis XIV, published “Les Six Voyages de Jean-Baptiste Tavernier” (the six voyages of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, 1676). In spite of confusion in the sequence of events and itineraries, this work was a precious manual for all merchant-travellers active in the East and in Asia, as it contains a wealth of information on coinages, weights and measures, the value and price of products, customs and commercial regulations, etc. Tavernier was highly respected in his country and received many honours from King Louis XIV.
In his forty years of travels, he had covered some two hundred and forty thousand kilometres. Until the end he remained, as Voltaire reproached him, “more of a merchant than a philosopher”. Montesquieu drew extensively from Tavernier’s work for his “Lettres persanes”.
Bellow are a few of his illustrations from Armenia.





Thanks again for these! I wonder what happened to the walls around Echmiadzin– does anyone know if they still exist?
There is no wall surrounding Echmiadzin. Defensive wall was a traditional feature of Armenian church architecture in medieval period to keep the safe life and environment. Now church is surrounded with beautiful fence and entrance gates.
Sorry, there is nothing beautifull about destroying Armenian medieval heritage and replacing it with a fence, a fence!
Eventually we’ll need to restore our historical sites destroyed by the Mongols/Turks otherwise Armenia will feel so empty and historyless.
Is there any truth to the legend that after Jesus preached at the Echmi. (SP?) that everything turned gold? Forgive my ignorance of our history. I have been away from my family for decades (not by my choice)
I think you might be confusing the legend of Echmeadzin. Jesus never preached in Armenia and the church itself was build about 4 centuries after Jesus. I think you are refering to this. According to History of the Armenians (c. 460) by Agathangelos, Armenia’s patron saint Gregory the Illuminator had a vision of Jesus Christ descending from heaven and striking the earth with a golden hammer to show where the cathedral should be built. Hence, the patriarch gave the church the name of Etchmiadzin (էջ ēĵ “descent” + մի mi “only” + -ա- -a- (linking element) + ծին tsin “begotten”),… Read more »