Levon's Divine Underground

In 1985 Levon Arakelyan began digging a potato cellar for his wife and did not stop for twenty-three years, cutting a complex of chambers, stairs and passages twenty-one metres down into the basalt under his house, entirely by hand with hammer and chisel and no plan. He said he was directed in dreams. He died in 2008 and his widow Tosya has shown visitors round since, keeping the tools and the family photographs alongside the carved chambers.

What you actually see

• The chambers - seven rooms cut into basalt, with carved columns, arches and altars.
• The depth - stairs dropping twenty-one metres below the house.
• The hand tools - the hammers and chisels the whole thing was cut with.
• The house above - an ordinary village house with all of this underneath it.

When to go

Year round; the temperature underground is constant. The family opens on request and it is best to call ahead or come with a driver who can. Mornings are usually fine.

Honest expectations

This is a family home and the tour depends on someone being there; arriving unannounced can mean nobody answers. Stairs are steep and the passages are narrow. The visit takes forty minutes.

Nearby

Yerevan is ten kilometres southwest, and Garni is east on the same side of the city.