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Urban Explorers Visit Huge Abandoned Soviet Radio Telescope On Armenian Volcano

Urban Explorers Visit Huge Abandoned Soviet Radio Telescope On Armenian Volcano

A team of experienced urban explorers travelled all the way to Mount Aragats in Armenia to film the incredible yet ominous structure

EMS 7

EMS 7

The trend of urban exploration has been growing for some time, with the recent release of HBO's stunning drama Chernobyl only helping to pique people's interest even more.

If you too like the idea of venturing to the world's abandoned ruins but you a) don't have the money and b) don't have the daring (us too), don't fret - that's what YouTube's for.

Just get a load of the video above, showing a team of modern-day Columbus's as they visit an abandoned soviet telescope situated atop an isolated four-peaked volcano massif.

Caters Clips/YouTube

Experienced urban explorer Bob Thissen, 33, from the Netherlands, and his team travelled all the way to Mount Aragats in Armenia, reaching altitudes of 1700 metres, in order to capture the ominous construction.

Situated close to the Byurakan Observatory, the ROT-54/2.6 is a radio telescope built in 1985 by the radiophysicist Paris Herouni, a physicist and engineer and member of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia.

With a diameter of 54 metres, at the time it was one of the largest constructions of its kind. It was named Herouni Mirror Radio telescope after the inventor himself.

Caters Clips/YouTube

Bob said: "The first sight of the telescope was impressive, and to think that originally it was designed to be 300 metres wide - I can't imagine how awesome that would have looked."

As you'll see in the footage, the team stumble across some uncanny remnants of the abandoned structure, including the gigantic 'dish', perfectly intact control rooms with murals on the walls, drawings of the project and - the creepiest of all - a dark anechoic chamber filled with black star-shaped paper.

Caters Clips/YouTube

"Another highlight was the control room, where we found a lot of decorations and murals," added Bob.

"You can see it was a prestigious project as they paid a lot of attention to detail - while normally the Soviet constructions are rather sober.

"After walking around the building I felt sorry for Paris Herouni. He dedicated his life to this project and it's sad to see the building in a decaying state, with even large animals roaming inside it."

Not to worry, Bob - by posting the video and allowing new audiences to marvel at the structure, Herouni's great work lives on.

Featured Image Credit: Caters

Topics: World News, YouTube