Armenia is also part of Europe’s legendary and religious landscape. The garden of Eden is supposed to have been located there, and it was on Mount Ararat that Noah’s ark came to rest after the flood. Very early on, the Church invoked its apostolic origin and proclaimed itself to be autocephalous. It became the cornerstone of Armenian identity, separating from the imperial Orthodox Church of Byzantium and, most importantly, giving the nation a powerful instrument of cultural specificity with the creation of a national alphabet (early 5th century).