Armenia360.org

The mission of Armenia360 is quite simple. Our mission is to bring to the eyes of the scattered 8 Million armenians living in diaspora throughout the world an immersive on-the-ground experience of their native homeland; it is also my hope that through this effort, many others curious to learn about our country will have the ability to do so quickly and easily.

There are 11 million armenians in the world today, yet only 3 million of them actually live in our indigineous (and ancient) homeland. This means that statistically, most Armenians living in the world today haven't even experienced what it feels like to look around at the landscape, architecture, ancient places of worship and distinction that is their right as armenians, to experience.

My name is Joe Hacobian, and I've put together Armenia360 to correct a glaring problem I noticed when during preparations for my first trip to Armenia (in the summer of 2015) I could not find any Google Streetview coverage of either Yerevan (the Capital) or the surrounding cities and states. This perplexed me given the high rate of literacy and technical development in the country. My curiousity was further stoked when upon zooming out and searching nearby countries for Streetview coverage, I found that not 20 miles from the outskirts of Yerevan, nearby Turkey was awash in official Google Streetview coverage.

Our very own mount Ararat was there ringed by primary roads lit up on the map with Streetview (affording views from every angle) coverage whilst the ancient country from which the mountain received it's name lay dark on Google's Streetview, visible only via stale satelite imagery which does nothing to communicate the feeling of what it is like to stand with one's own feet on Armenian soil. So I visited Armenia in 2015 and during that trip, I shot several 360 degree photospheres, I published them and then forgot about the matter. Then six months later I was alerted by Google that one of my photoshpheres had been viewed over 400,000 times. That simple bunch of photospheres I had shot had been viewed over 500,000 times.

These view numbers seemed to send a clear signal: "There is certainly demand to see our country". The lack of official Google Streetview coverage sent another signal: "That demand is going unmet." Thus then and there I decided that upon my next visit, I would do something about this lack of immersive on-the-ground coverage.

As it happens 2016 is the year of the 360 camera, being a techie (and a formally trained photographer) I jumped into the fray and acquired a Samsung Gear 360 camera, and decided to push the 30Mp unit to its absolute limits during my 2016 summer trip.

The ensuing 2,750, 9,288 photospheres the presence of which on Google maps has probably...

UPDATE (April 2019): We're now well over 727,000 360 photospheres on Google maps.
We've covered Artsakh, and vast swaths of the country of Armenia, see our progress blog for details.

UPDATE (September 2018): We're now well over 100,000 360 photospheres on Google maps and we're just starting to roll out more imagery. Staying true to our core mission we're illuminating Armenia under a blanket of 360 photographic detail.
led you to this site, are the initial salvo in this continuing mission. It is the purpose of this site, to explain, to organize efforts, and to gauge your interest in further work to illuminate Armenia under a blanket of 360 photographic coverage.