Levon's Divine Underground

Levon's Divine Underground is a subterranean museum in the village of Arrinj, carved by local resident Levon Arakelyan starting in 1985. He kept digging until 2008, going down 21 meters and shaping seven rooms, linked by narrow stairways cut into the rock.

It's counted as a work of art brut (untrained, outsider art) rather than a formal architectural project — one man's private undertaking rather than a commissioned building. Arakelyan died before seeing it declared finished in any conventional sense; today his wife, known locally as Mrs. Tosya, greets visitors at the entrance.

The museum is among the more visited small sites in Armenia, likely owing to its odd, singular origin story: a private house extension that turned into a multi-room dug-out museum over two decades.

The site sits in Arrinj, a locality near the town of Abovyan in Kotayk region, about 8 km northeast of Yerevan as the crow flies.