Armenian Cemetary in Old Jugha

Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan

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The Armenian cemetery in Old Jugha (also spelled Julfa or Hin Jugha) was once the largest and most important medieval Armenian cemetery in the region, located near the historic town of Old Jugha on the left bank of the Arax River in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan.

It was famous for its thousands of intricately carved khachkars (cross-stones) and ram-shaped tombstones, with French traveler Alexandre de Rhodes reporting about 10,000 well-preserved khachkars in 1648, and by the 1970s researchers still recorded roughly 3,000 khachkars plus around 1,000 additional tombstones. Each stone was a unique masterpiece of medieval Armenian art, bearing religious symbols, floral motifs, and inscriptions in Armenian script, making the site one of the most significant repositories of Armenian Christian cultural heritage in the Caucasus.

Starting in the late 1990s and continuing into the mid-2000s, Azerbaijani authorities systematically destroyed the cemetery, and in December 2005 the Armenian Genocide Museum and other sources confirm that the entire site was bulldozed, with the stones smashed and thrown into the Arax River, and today a military shooting range occupies the hill where the cemetery once stood.