default YEREVAN. – By the end of December or beginning of January 2016, the tender on the new section of Armenia’s North-South Highway will be announced. Armenia’s first Deputy Minister of Transport and Communication Artur Arakelyan told the aforementioned to Armenian News – NEWS.am today.

The tender will be announced for the construction from the southernmost point of the Iranian border to the Armenian town of Kajaran. In the framework of the 4th tranche of the project, the 20,5 km section will be constructed by the $150 loan of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB).

A tunnel construction is intended for this section. “The tunnel is planned to be constructed near Kajaran, but already in the framework of another tranche,” he said.

The Ministry doesn’t give up the idea of making a number of the road sections paid (including tunnels and bridges). The private investors are offered to invest into complex infrastructures and exploit them for fee. The only mandatory condition is to preserve an alternative free road, even if the latter is lengthier and more complicated.

The 4-lane “North-South” concrete highway will reduce the time of moving from the Iranian to Georgian border, as well as decrease the 556 km distance to 495 km at the expense of leveling a number of mountainous sections and constructing new and more direct ones (from Ararat town through Vanadzor province to Noravan village of Armenia’s Sisian region, and from there to Kajaran town). The total cost of the construction will be about $960 mln, the main project donor being the Asian Development Bank (ADB) (approx. $500 mln).

Turkish archaeologists have just made an interesting discovery in the ruins of Ani, the Armenian capital Bagratid. With the decline in the groundwater level, archaeologists discovered under the foundations of the city while a giant network of passageways dug. At an international conference entitled “Secrets of the basement of Ani” organized by the Caucasian University of Kars, archaeologist Sezayi Yakic revealed the discovery of bridges, meditation rooms, passages and many other elements in the basement of Ani.

The network of underground passages is such that “it would be very easy to get lost,” he said. More than 823 buildings were discovered in the basement galleries of Ani. Much of these constructions are restrooms number of officials from the Armenian capital. S. Yakic says his team of archaeologists has consulted the work of Georgi Gurdjiev 1886 to make these discoveries. G. Gurdjiev, accompanied by a certain Boghossian had conducted numerous archaeological discoveries in the ruins of Ani. G. Gurdjiev who spoke and read fluent Armenian had also discovered the writings said to be esoteric.

Recall Ani, the capital of the Armenian kingdom of Bagrationi, had the eleventh century over 100 000 inhabitants. In size, it rivaled the biggest cities on the planet. This town of “Thousand and one churches” famous for its fortifications and architecture, was one of the largest business centers in the region … until its destruction by the Seljuk Turks in 1064.

Krikor Amirzayan

Armenian: New kinds of tunnels to appear on highway near Iranian border

Discovery of vast networks of underground tunnels to Ani, the Armenian capital Bagratid