{"id":2683,"date":"2026-09-28T16:39:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T16:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.caucasusheritage.arts.cornell.edu\/?post_type=heritage_site&p=2683"},"modified":"2026-09-28T16:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T16:39:12","slug":"karmir-khach-church","status":"publish","type":"heritage_site","link":"https:\/\/caucasusheritage.cornell.edu\/?heritage_site=karmir-khach-church","title":{"rendered":"Karmir Khach Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

HT.126-0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

Karmir Khach Church<\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
Damaged<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n\n
Church<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
\"Karmir<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n
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Before Image Date: August 22, 2021<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Impact Image Date: February 2, 2025<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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One of the oldest churches in Karabakh, the original name of this medieval church is not preserved. It is known in Armenian as Karmir Khach, or “Red Cross”. According to a founding inscription, the church was built by the sister of Gagik I in the year 1000 \u201cfor the salvation of my soul and my parents.\u201d Google Earth imagery shows that the foundations of the \u201cRed Cross\u201d church were dug into and dirt piled to the southwest between August 22, 2021 and February 2, 2025. <\/p>\n

To narrow the timeframe, we turned to lower-resolution Sentinel 2 imagery which documents the appearance of a bright cluster of pixels (arrow A) between January 2 and February 1, 2025, marking the appearance of the back dirt pile from the excavations and confirming that digging took place in this date range.<\/p>\n

CHW’s StoryMap at the link has full details of the impact to the site and the methodology used to narrow the impact window.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Metadata<\/h4>\n\n\n

Coordinates: 39.582361, 46.900750<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

Impact year: 2025<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

Mission 13<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n\n
CHW Monitoring <\/span>Report 09<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n
Site date: 11th c.<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n
More Information \u2192<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
\"Karmir<\/div><\/div>\n\n
Image Metadata: January 2, 2025-February 1, 2025<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n
Sentinel<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>