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Azerbaijan has destroyed the 1835 Halivor (Halevor) Bridge, which spanned the Ishkhanaget River, 2km southwest of Mets Tagher village in the Hadrut region of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), the satellite images compiled by Caucasus Heritage Watch (CHW) show.

"We have been concerned about this bridge since last summer. It was clearly visible in an Oct. 2021 satellite image," CHW said in a statement.

"But the bridge was no longer discernable by July 2022. In CHW’s monitoring report #4, we provisionally designated it as damaged. April 2023 imagery now shows that the bridge was destroyed during roadwork," the watchdog added.

The information about the bridge is scarce. According to the 7-line building inscription (Karapetyan 2009, 104) engraved on the slab embedded onto the upstream-looking facade of the bridge, it was built in 1835: “This bridge is in remembrance of Harutyun – son of Gevorg, I built to the memory of my parents, whoever passes let him say God have mercy on them (1834)” (Fig. 3).

It was one of the six bridges built on the Ishkhanaget River and its tributaries, four of which were uninterruptedly maintained and operated until the Second Artsakh War. The bridge connected the villages of Tumi and Mets Tagher.