• 001 - the logo.jpg
  • 002 - Hiroshima sunset.jpg
  • 003 - Auschwitz-Birkenau ramp.jpg
  • 004 - Chernobyl contamination.jpg
  • 005 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 006 - Berlin Wall madness.jpg
  • 007 - Bulgaria - monument at the bottom of Buzludzhy park hill.jpg
  • 008 - Ijen crater.jpg
  • 009 - Aralsk, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 010 - Paris catacombs.jpg
  • 011 - Krakatoa.jpg
  • 012 - Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, Hanoi.jpg
  • 013 - Uyuni.jpg
  • 014 - DMZ Vietnam.jpg
  • 015 - Colditz Kopie.jpg
  • 016 - Glasgow Necropolis.jpg
  • 017 - Hashima ghost island.jpg
  • 018 - Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 019 - Arlington.jpg
  • 020 - Karosta prison.jpg
  • 021 - Kamikaze.jpg
  • 022 - Chacabuco ghost town.jpg
  • 023 - Eagle's Nest, Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden.jpg
  • 024 - Kursk.jpg
  • 025 - Bran castle, Carpathia, Romania.jpg
  • 026 - Bestattungsmuseum Wien.jpg
  • 027 - Pripyat near Chernobyl.jpg
  • 028 - Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 029 - Pyramida Lenin.jpg
  • 030 - Falklands.jpg
  • 031 - Majdanek.jpg
  • 032 - Soufriere volcano, Montserrat.jpg
  • 033 - moai on Easter Island.jpg
  • 034 - Sidoarjo.jpg
  • 035 - Hötensleben.jpg
  • 036 - Natzweiler.jpg
  • 037 - Polygon, Semipalatinsk test site, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 038 - Srebrenica.jpg
  • 039 - Liepaja, Latvia.jpg
  • 040 - Vemork hydroelectric power plant building, Norway.jpg
  • 041 - Enola Gay.jpg
  • 042 - Pentagon 9-11 memorial.jpg
  • 043 - Robben Island prison, South Africa.jpg
  • 044 - Tollund man.jpg
  • 045 - Marienthal tunnel.jpg
  • 046 - Aso, Japan.jpg
  • 047 - Labrador battery Singapore.jpg
  • 048 - Artyom island, Absheron, Azerbaijan.jpg
  • 049 - Treblinka.jpg
  • 050 - Titan II silo.jpg
  • 051 - dosemetering doll, Chernobyl.jpg
  • 052 - Holocaust memorial, Berlin.jpg
  • 053 - Komodo dragon.jpg
  • 054 - cemeterio general, Santiago de Chile.jpg
  • 055 - Tuol Sleng, Phnom Phen, Cambodia.jpg
  • 056 - West Virginia penitentiary.jpg
  • 057 - ovens, Dachau.jpg
  • 058 - Derry, Northern Ireland.jpg
  • 059 - Bulgaria - Buzludzha - workers of all countries unite.jpg
  • 060 - Sachsenhausen.jpg
  • 061 - Tiraspol dom sovietov.jpg
  • 062 - modern-day Pompeii - Plymouth, Montserrat.jpg
  • 063 - Pico de Fogo.jpg
  • 064 - Trinity Day.jpg
  • 065 - Zwentendorf control room.jpg
  • 066 - Wolfschanze.jpg
  • 067 - Hiroshima by night.jpg
  • 068 - mass games, North Korea.jpg
  • 069 - Harrisburg.jpg
  • 070 - Nuremberg.jpg
  • 071 - Mostar.jpg
  • 072 - Tu-22, Riga aviation museum.jpg
  • 073 - Gallipoli, Lone Pine.jpg
  • 074 - Auschwitz-Birkenau - fence.jpg
  • 075 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 076 - Atatürk Mausoleum, Ankara.jpg
  • 077 - Banda Aceh boats.jpg
  • 078 - AMARG.jpg
  • 079 - Chacabuco ruins.jpg
  • 080 - Bucharest.jpg
  • 081 - Bernauer Straße.jpg
  • 082 - Death Railway, Thailand.jpg
  • 083 - Mandor killing fields.jpg
  • 084 - Kozloduy.jpg
  • 085 - Jerusalem.jpg
  • 086 - Latin Bridge, Sarajevo.jpg
  • 087 - Panmunjom, DMZ, Korea.jpg
  • 088 - Ijen blue flames.jpg
  • 089 - Derry reconsilliation monument.jpg
  • 090 - Ebensee.jpg
  • 091 - Mödlareuth barbed wire.jpg
  • 092 - skull heaps in Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 093 - Nikel.jpg
  • 094 - Fukushima-Daiichi NPP.jpg
  • 095 - Tital launch control centre.jpg
  • 096 - Dallas Dealy Plaza and Sixth Floor Museum.jpg
  • 097 - Auschwitz I.jpg
  • 098 - Stalin and Lenin, Tirana, Albania.jpg
  • 099 - Malta, Fort St Elmo.jpg
  • 100 - Peenemünde.jpg
  • 101 - Tarrafal.jpg
  • 102 - Kilmainham prison, Dublin.jpg
  • 103 - North Korea.jpg
  • 104 - Mittelbau-Dora.jpg
  • 105 - St Helena.jpg
  • 106 - Stutthof, Poland.jpg
  • 107 - Merapi destruction.jpg
  • 108 - Chueung Ek killing fields, Cambodia.jpg
  • 109 - Marienborn former GDR border.jpg
  • 110 - Mig and star, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 111 - Nagasaki WWII tunnels.jpg
  • 112 - Hellfire Pass, Thailand.jpg
  • 113 - Kiev.jpg
  • 114 - Grutas Park, Lithuania.jpg
  • 115 - Zwentendorf reactor core.jpg
  • 116 - two occupations, Tallinn.jpg
  • 117 - Trunyan burial site.jpg
  • 118 - Ushuaia prison.jpg
  • 119 - Buchenwald.jpg
  • 120 - Marienthal with ghost.jpg
  • 121 - Murmansk harbour - with an aircraft carrier.jpg
  • 122 - Berlin Olympiastadion.JPG
  • 123 - Bastille Day, Paris.jpg
  • 124 - Spassk.jpg
  • 125 - Theresienstadt.jpg
  • 126 - B-52s.jpg
  • 127 - Bledug Kuwu.jpg
  • 128 - Friedhof der Namenlosen, Vienna.jpg
  • 129 - Auschwitz-Birkenau barracks.jpg
  • 130 - mummies, Bolivia.jpg
  • 131 - Barringer meteor crater.jpg
  • 132 - Murambi, Rwanda.jpg
  • 133 - NTS.jpg
  • 134 - Mauthausen Soviet monument.jpg
  • 135 - pullution, Kazakhstan.JPG
  • 136 - palm oil madness.jpg
  • 137 - Berlin socialist realism.jpg
  • 138 - Okawa school building ruin.jpg
  • 139 - Pawiak, Warsaw.jpg
  • 140 - flying death, military museum Dresden.JPG
  • 141 - KGB gear.JPG
  • 142 - KZ jacket.JPG
  • 143 - ex-USSR.JPG
  • 144 - Indonesia fruit bats.JPG
  • 145 - Alcatraz.JPG
  • 146 - Chernobyl Museum, Kiev, Ukraine.JPG
  • 147 - Halemaumau lava lake glow, Hawaii.JPG
  • 148 - Rosinenbomber at Tempelhof, Berlin.jpg
  • 149 - Verdun, France.JPG
  • 150 - hospital, Vukovar, Croatia.JPG
  • 151 - the original tomb of Napoleon, St Helena.JPG
  • 152 - Buchenwald, Germany.JPG
  • 153 - Bhopal.JPG
  • 154 - Groß-Rosen, Poland.jpg
  • 155 - at Monino, Russia.jpg
  • 156 - blinking Komodo.jpg
  • 157 - inside Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 158 - Mount St Helens, USA.JPG
  • 159 - Maly Trostenec, Minsk, Belarus.jpg
  • 160 - Vucedol skulls, Croatia.JPG
  • 161 - colourful WW1 shells.JPG
  • 162 - Zeljava airbase in Croatia.JPG
  • 163 - rusting wrecks, Chernobyl.JPG
  • 164 - San Bernadine alle Ossa, Milan, Italy.jpg
  • 165 - USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.JPG
  • 166 - Brest Fortress, Belarus.JPG
  • 167 - thousands of bats, Dom Rep.JPG
  • 168 - Hohenschönhausen, Berlin.JPG
  • 169 - Perm-36 gulag site.JPG
  • 170 - Jasenovac, Croatia.JPG
  • 171 - Beelitz Heilstätten.JPG
  • 172 - Kremlin, Moscow.jpg
  • 173 - old arms factory, Dubnica.JPG
  • 174 - Pervomaisc ICBM base, more  missiles, including an SS-18 Satan.jpg
  • 175 - Cellular Jail, Port Blair.jpg
  • 177 - control room, Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 178 - Podgorica, Montenegro, small arms and light weapons sculpture.jpg
  • 179 - Vught.jpg
  • 180 - Japanese cave East Timor.jpg
  • 181 - Ani.jpg
  • 182 - Indonesia wildfire.jpg
  • 183 - Chacabuco big sky.jpg
  • 184 - Bunker Valentin, Germany.JPG
  • 185 - Lest we Forget, Ypres.JPG
  • 186 - the logo again.jpg

lost places:

  

Artsakh State Museum

  
(formerly    - darkometer rating:  3 -)
 
This was a small museum in Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, about local history – including the Karabakh war of the early 1990s. 
  
Since all of Nagorno-Karabakh, including the capital, was “recaptured” by Azerbaijan in their military offensive of September 2023, which triggered the mass exodus of practically the entire Armenian population of the region, this museum will most likely also have been deserted. Maybe some older historical artefacts will be kept – while the museum’s name most certainly will not. The 1990s war parts are also certain to disappear, even if the museum as such may not.
  
The text below is adapted from the original chapter I had penned after my visit to Nagorno-Karabakh in 2010. It is now only of historical interest and no longer a description of a current dark-tourism site. It’s a lost place.
  
--------------------------------

>More background info

>What there is to see

>Location

>Access and costs

>Time required

>Combinations with other dark destinations

>Combinations with non-dark destinations

>Photos

   

More background info: see under Nagorno-Karabakh.
 
 
What there is to see: when I stayed in Stepanakert I wanted to see this museum because I had read that it had many interesting objects relating to the Nagorno-Karabakh war of the 1990s – and because you allegedly could get a free guided tour in English there.
 
The latter was indeed the case – a surprisingly young and professional lady greeted me in very good English when I first went there. But unfortunately she had to inform me that because of a power cut, we couldn't go on the tour, or indeed even enter the museum. So I had to come back the next day. Never mind. And not their fault, of course.
 
The tour started downstairs, in chronological terms at the earliest beginnings, i.e. in prehistoric times. To get to the bits more interesting from a dark-tourism perspective, I had to wait a bit …
 
First there was some geology, anthropology and culture. Some rather stuffy, musty diorama displays of Neanderthals hunting wild boar and bears had a very old-school Soviet-regional-museum feel, but can potentially at least be regarded as endearing.
 
It went on in a rather tedious fashion, with artefacts like coins, vases, books, musical instruments, a couple of fine khatchkars, and the like. But the dark tourist's real interest wasn't aroused until the tour got to the communist era.
 
Some Lenin-related objects set the scene, soon after a whole section was devoted to WWII, or rather: the "Great Patriotic War", as it is known in all former Soviet countries. It's a bit dull, just like in most such museums in the former Soviet Union – all busts of heavily decorated hero generals and flags and other such rather uninteresting pieces. And all the while the guide, despite her initially good English, rattled through her memorized text rather mechanically. So it was not so easy to maintain or feign interest.  
 
Finally, we got to the Karabakh war of the 1990s, so things should have got a bit more captivating. Compared to the Museum of Fallen Soldiers, however, the artefacts here were, well, rather second rate: a couple of rifles, uniforms and such objects. Otherwise it's all photos, texts and charts … and again more busts of "heroes". In this case e.g. of Monte Melkonian, an ex-US citizen and Diaspora Armenian who acted as one of the military commanders on the Karabakh side. He had earned much of his militia experience in Lebanon, and in other parts of the world his name is associated with somewhat less heroic deeds, allegedly including terrorism; for which he was imprisoned for a few years in France.
 
Another bust was of Vazgen Sarkisyan, an Armenian military commander in Karabakh who later became defence secretary, and then prime minister, in Armenia and was assassinated in 1999 in a shooting attack on the Armenian parliament.
 
Such dramatic stories apart, the Artsakh State Museum's main asset really was the simple fact that, unusually for these parts, it had some English language provision for (non-Armenian and) non-Russian speakers. Not just in the form of the guided tour, also in the texts labelling artefacts and photos – only that the English translations were often a little on the deficient side …
 
Content-wise, however, the Artsakh State Museum was, for the dark tourist, a much lamer affair than the nearby Museum of Fallen Soldiers.
  
And now it has to be regarded as a lost place anyway.
 
 
Location: right in the centre of Nagorno-Karabakh's capital city Stepanakert, just off the focal point of Shahumian Hraparak roundabout to the east at 4 Davit Sasountsi Poghots. But all these names will now have reverted to some Azeri alternative.
 
Google maps locator: [39.8175,46.7543]
  
 
Access and costs: easy and free.
Details: centrally located and thus easy to find – from the bottom end of the Azatamartikneri Poghota main boulevard at the Shahumian Hraparak roundabout just head east. The museum is the first, grand(ish) building to the right, opposite a modern, disproportionately flashy Russian restaurant. There's a sign by the entrance in Russian and English, so it really can't be missed.
 
Opening times: Tuesdays to Sundays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
 
Admission free – also free is the guided tour in English offered on arrival, which you should take up to get something out of this place. Even if you can read Russian well, much of the significance of the various artefacts would be lost on you without further explanation.
 

Time required: not long – about half an hour.
 

Combinations with other dark destinations: see Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh.
 

Combinations with non-dark destinations: the museum itself can be regarded as one of the very few mainstream "sights" in town – see under Stepanakert and Nagorno-Karabakh for a few further suggestions.
  
 
 
  • Artsakh State Museum 1aArtsakh State Museum 1a
  • Artsakh State Museum 1bArtsakh State Museum 1b
  • Artsakh State Museum 2Artsakh State Museum 2
  • Artsakh State Museum 3Artsakh State Museum 3
  • Artsakh State Museum 4Artsakh State Museum 4
  • Artsakh State Museum 5Artsakh State Museum 5
  • Artsakh State Museum 6Artsakh State Museum 6
  • Artsakh State Museum 7Artsakh State Museum 7
  • Artsakh State Museum 8Artsakh State Museum 8
  • Artsakh State Museum 9Artsakh State Museum 9
  • Artsakh State Museum 9bArtsakh State Museum 9b

  
  
  
  
  
 

© dark-tourism.com, Peter Hohenhaus 2009-2023

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