Kotayk Province
Kotayk exhibits industrial source-sink dynamics: 6.7% of GDP from cement and manufacturing supplies Yerevan's construction demands while preserving Garni's pre-Christian heritage.
Kotayk Province functions as Yerevan's industrial hinterland, contributing 6.7% of national GDP—third highest after Yerevan itself and Syunik. The province hosts cement factories, building materials production, and food processing in towns like Hrazdan and Abovyan, positioned to supply the capital's construction demands. This creates source-sink dynamics: Kotayk extracts resources and produces bulk materials while Yerevan consumes them and exports higher-value goods.
The province also preserves Armenia's pre-Christian heritage. The Garni Temple—the only surviving Greco-Roman colonnaded building in the former Soviet Union—and the Geghard Monastery carved into cliffsides represent different phases of Armenian religious evolution. Garni, dedicated to the sun god Mihr, was destroyed in a 1679 earthquake and reconstructed in Soviet times; Geghard, a UNESCO site, demonstrates how Christian institutions literally carved themselves into pagan sacred geography.