Armenia begins construction of world's tallest Christ statue

A capsule for the world's tallest Christ statue has been laid on Mount Hatis in Armenia, 25 kilometres from the capital, Yerevan.

A member of the Supreme Political Council of the Prosperous Armenia Party, Arman Abovyan, made the remarks about this, TASS reports.

"Today [July 10], a capsule was laid on the top of Mount Hatis to mark the start of the construction of the large-scale project monumental complex Monument to Jesus Christ. Of course, the project is of tremendous importance not only in terms of attracting tourists to Armenia but also in terms of bringing to the attention of the world community the fact that it was Armenia that was the first to adopt Christianity as a state religion," he said.

The construction project proposed by this party was approved on July 7 at a meeting of the Armenian government. The commission selected the project of the sculptor Armen Samvelyan - the height of the statue will be 33 metres, that is, the number of years Jesus Christ lived. With a pedestal, the height of the statue should be 77 metres.