Yeghvard

Yeghvard () is a town and urban municipal community in the Kotayk Province of Armenia. It is located 39 kilometres southwest of the provincial centre Hrazdan. As of the 2022 census, the town had a population of 12,279.

== Etymology == There are several folk traditions about the origin of the town's name. According to one of these, the name derives from the fact that the fields around Yeghvard were once covered in forests and gardens, and that the village was rich in oils ( or egh in Old Armenian) and flowers, particularly roses ( in Armenian). Another tradition holds that the people on Noah's Ark exclaimed (Now it has happened!) when they saw the base of Mount Ara emerge from under the flood waters, hence the place was called Yeghvard. Yet another tradition connects the name with , the name of the Holy Lance in Armenian; the relic is supposed to have been kept in a nearby hermitage. is also the Armenian name of the fruit of a tree called , possibly to be identified with Betula pubescens (downy birch).