In 1985, a resident of the village Auringe Levon Arakelyan was going to build a storage for vegetables, but so carried away that he built an underground temple. The history of the Armenian builder tells Radio Free Europe.
When Levon Arakelyan began to dig in his basement to a pit for potatoes, he was 44 years old. The pit has grown, and the owner decided to make a wine cellar there, but then he dreamed of an underground temple. His construction Levon was engaged in 23 years, working for 18 hours a day and using only a chisel and a hammer.
At first, the work was hard, and the builder managed to move on only 7 centimeters per day. After 10 years of stubborn labor, the first layer of rock, basalt, was changed to the tuff and build the temple was easier. In total, Arakelian extradited to the surface of 450 trucks of the breed, which was exported and used for its projects a local construction company.
The lower halls of the temple are located at a depth of 21 meters - this is the height of the seven-story house. Arakelyan cut off the columns, stairs, sculptures, tunnels and decorated it all with an ornament.
Levon died of heart attack in 2008, when he was 67 years old. He did not finish work - the builder's plans were another 30 years of labor. Now the temple is controlled by his wife Tosya, who believes that the husband destroyed his health under the ground. It is not less, she grateful to Levon for this temple. "I am proud that he left me and our grandchildren. This is a gift, "says Tosya.
A source