Azokh Cave

Azokh Cave is located in the southeastern part of the Republic of Artsakh, near the village of Azokh, Hadrut district. It is located above the river valley, about 200 meters above the village of the same name. Azok cave is geographically located in the natural corridor through which ancient people and animals migrated from Africa to Europe and Asia.

Azokh Cave is one of the oldest and most famous prehistoric sites in the world. Here, for the first time, in the layer of archaeological culture called Acheulean, stone tools and wall paintings of work and hunting of humans who lived here more than three hundred thousand years ago have been discovered. At a depth of seven meters near the southern entrance of the cave, archaeologists found a large piece of the lower jaw of a Neanderthal.

According to legend, the treasures of the Amaras monastery were kept in this cave. And Makar Epis, Barkhutareants, who mentions the cave at the end of the nineteenth century, states that he saw a stone statue of a woman there.