There are interesting observations and information about Armenian people in traveling notes of Swedish botanist and physician Fredrick Hasselquist (1722–1752) “Iter Palaestinum” first published in 1757.
Hasselquist travelled in Ottoman Turkey, Palestine, Egypt and described peoples of these countries, including Armenians. He attended Armenian church services in Smyrna, gave some information about the Armenians in Jerusalem and Jaffa.
Hasselquist appreciated the skills of the Armenians in architecture and building, writing that “A Turk understands not how to lay a stone properly, much less how to raise a wall. The Armenians are their architects, who, by their natural inclination for the art, assisted by what they have seen on their travels in the East, build as well as can be expected from a people who owe all their knowledge in a manner to nature. If these people were to travel to Europe, and there cultivate their parts, we might see in the East, masters in every useful science, who might probably vie with the ancients, and surpass many of the moderns.”
source: www.armenian-history.com