Inside the Armenian ghost town with a population of three

The Times, UK

Jan 10 2021

PHOTOGRAPHY SPECIAL

Photographer Yulia Grigoryants visits the last scientists at a former Soviet research base

Yulia Grigoryants

Sunday , 12.01am GMT, The Sunday Times

On the snow-covered flanks of Mount Aragats in Armenia stands an almost deserted research station. Once upon a time it was a vibrant centre of physics concerned with the study of cosmic rays — high-energy subatomic particles thrown out by our sun, exploding stars in distant galaxies and even black holes. Now just a skeleton crew remains at the site, surrounded by empty buildings from a bygone era.

The Aragats Cosmic Ray Research Station was established in 1943, when Armenia was part of the Soviet Union. In its heyday about 100 scientists were based here, 3,200 metres above sea level. Today that number has dwindled to just three — two researchers working on a monthly rotation and a chef, living an isolated existence in winter, except for the occasional delivery of food and supplies.

There had been great hopes for the station in its early years, including ambitions to conduct the world’s largest experiment to detect very high-energy cosmic rays. But years of war, economic turmoil and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 thwarted the project. Advancements in technology mean computers have now all but replaced humans on similar projects. Today giant particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider at Cern lead the field.

Yet work still continues at Aragats. Over recent years the station has focused on recording and analysing space weather and investigating radiation that hits the Earth’s surface during thunderstorms.

Artash Petrosyan, 70, the research station’s chef, takes a stroll around the deserted site

©YULIA GRIGORYANTS

Artash in the kitchen where he has worked for more than 30 years. It once used to feed about 100 scientists

©YULIA GRIGORYANTS

Lab assistant Karen, 26, plays pool alone on a dusty table to kill time between shifts

©YULIA GRIGORYANTS

A room serving as both office and bedroom for lab assistants working on rotation

©YULIA GRIGORYANTS

Ageing electronic equipment for measuring particle showers, created when high-energy particles from deep space collide with those in the Earth’s atmosphere

©YULIA GRIGORYANTS

Dinner for two as the site’s occupants, Karen and Artash, sit down together to eat. Same time again tomorrow?

A tattered poster from 1988 — when the station was a globally renowned centre for the study of cosmic rays

A forest of cables links equipment that powered advanced particle detectors focusing on high-energy cosmic rays

The only way to reach the research station in winter, when the average temperature drops to -14C, is a nine-mile hike through howling winds and heavy snow

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