Vardenyats caravanserai (formerly known as Selim Caravanserai)

This monument is located on the road linking Gegharkunik region to Vayots Dzor region (both part of historic Armenia's Syunik province).

Caravanserai - overnight spots on the long Silk Road
The caravanserai can be more prosaically described as a motel for camels and their riders; overnight spots on the long Silk Road that plied Central Asia, the Caucasus and Anatolia on their way to Persia and Europe.  Laden with silk and spice, the caravans from Asia traded their burdens in Europe for western goods destined for the east. 
The Selim Caravanserai was built on the ancient Dvin-Partav international trade route, which included the Selim mountain pass.
According to the inscription, the caravanserai was commissioned by Prince Chesar Orbelian and constructed in 1332. The facade features two bas-relief statues embellished with Orbelian dynastic emblems.

Built from basalt, the building is 41 meters long. It is a three-nave hall that adjoins a vestibule and a domed chapel at the east end. Fourteen pylons divide the hall (26x13m) into three naves that feature half-round vaults below the pitched roof.
On the western side, the hall connects to two small rooms for travelers at its end (southern and northern naves). Under the eastern wall is a large basalt watering trough. The oculus in the dome of the middle nave widens through a series of stalactite ornaments, admitting light into the hall and vestibule.  The outer walls feature stalactite carvings.
There are stalactite decorations on the south facade entrance, with bas-relief statues of a winged animal on the left, and a bull on the right, above the lintel. The pitched roof over the vestibule and that of the hall form vertical lines. Both roofs are covered by basalt slabs as protective covering.
The caravanserai was destroyed in the 15th-16th centuries and reconstructed in 1956-1959. The roof slabs, the south wall, the internal walls, the domes and the vaults were fully reconstructed.

In 2011 excavations uncovered an entrance from the vestibule into the single-nave hall.
On the road above the caravanserai is an Important Bird Area.