A 23-Year-Long Cave Dig

Levon Arakelyan had one job: dig a potato cellar for his wife. The Armenian man began the assignment since it appeared easy enough. He began his employment in 1985 and took 23 years to complete it. He had a vision, not because digging a potato cellar was a difficult task. He was promised he would work a miracle and not to worry if he fell ill because his duty would be completed.

Arakelyan dug a seven-story deep system of caves beneath his house entirely by hand with a hammer and chisel. It descends 21 meters, has seven rooms, electricity, and a number of Arakelyan-created stone carvings. It is a museum right now. Once word of the dig got out, neighbors would drop over food to keep him going, but he frequently shooed them away for interfering.

Arakelyan put his all into his endeavor, claiming that God had told him to. On the day of his passing at age 67, he was working in the cave. You can still go there if you travel to Armenia's Avan-Arinj and request to be escorted to Levon's Divine Underground.

Location: Arinj, Kotayk, Armenia