After I decided my destination as Armenia, I listed up towns in my taste with the Google Map photos. Through that, I came across the town of copper mine Alaverdi. The copper smelter has been there since days of Soviet Union, I guess. But in fact, I could not imagine how would be the town of copper mine.
Maybe most of the residents work on the factory. Apartments, commodity stores, schools, hospitals, all the facilities or even town itself can be arranged for the workers.
I imagined from the photos of smoke running copper smelter on the map site.

The share taxi I took from Georgia let me off at center of the town and keeps on going to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. Just after the taxi came into the town, we ran through in front of the copper smelter. As the first impression, it's not fall short of my expectations. The stone-built factory was all in Soviet fashion. What's the Soviet fashion? Well, it means rustic simplicity of kombinat.
But the actual town is neither smoky nor air polluted at all. It has clean fresh air and greens  instead.

The guest house that I booked is also in an old fashioned housing complex. The guest rooms are settled on the top floor while owner's house is on the first floor. Following a navigation app I get to the housing complex. Madams are chatting in the house yard. The owner is not at home. So one of the madams, maybe owner's mother, calls to her.

Before long the owner shows up by car and takes me to the room. We ascend the stair way which smells cement to the fifth floor. When we get into hallway, I see a kitchen on the side. There are three guest rooms around it. Contrary to the old fashioned exterior, the interior is neatly renovated. Looks really cozy. No other guest so far, so the whole floor of the old housing complex is now my base in Araveldi.
The view from the terrace let me know that the town is in a canyon. I see a high chimney of the copper smelter over there. No smoke from the chimney, I only see autumn blue sky above my head. The scenery looks like the one of Japan's country side.

The view stone built housing complexes lined on the hill side feel me melancholy . Meanwhile it has a full of lived-in feel.
I heard there is a ropeway in the town. I don't know where it connects to. But when I get to the station next to the copper factory, the entrance is firmly closed. "If it's once built for tourism but it went into red?" However it's something strange. Because a gondola stops in the air far above the town just like a time is stopped. The copper smelter itself looks like closed too.

I take a walk around the factory. The reason why the mountains behind doesn't have so much trees must be the puffed smoke from the chimney. The rocky bald mountain is now lighten up by the sun light through the clean autumn air. There is a word "Kojo-moe" in Japanese. (Means "Factory love") For the enthusiasts, a modern kombinat with glittering illuminations must be one-end in the fan's taste while the rusted steel and stone built factory is the other.
But after all what's happen on the copper smelter? People tell me that it's temporarily closed.