Albanian temple in the village of Pambak

In the village of Pambak (Gushchu, Göldek, Pambakli) in the Basar Kechar district of the Goycha district

Basarkechar district – Vardenis since 11.06.1938

Architecture

The Albanian temple in the village of Pambak is currently in a dilapidated and ruined state. Armenians added a cross element to the roof of the temple and presented it as an "Armenian monument."

In the northeast of Lake Goycha, 24 km northwest of the Basar-Kechar district, on the Vardenis-Chambarek highway, 1.5–2 km from the coast, at an altitude of 2027 meters above sea level, 300–350 meters west of the current geographical location of this village, there is an Albanian temple dating back to the 8th–9th centuries. The length of the ancient temple in the Duzdagh area of ​​the village is 10 meters, width is 4.5 meters, and height is about 5–6 meters.
In 1873, 166 people lived in the village, 237 in 1886, 283 in 1897, 352 in 1908, 392 in 1914, 331 in 1916, and 398 in 1919. In the spring of 1919, the village was subjected to the Armenian genocide, and the surviving Azerbaijanis were deported. After the establishment of Soviet power in present-day Armenia, the Azerbaijanis who were forced to leave the village were able to return to their historical lands. In 1922, 390 Azerbaijanis lived here, in 1926 - 349, in 1931 - 512, in 1987 - 2000. In late November - early December 1988, the village's population was deported from their historical and ethnic lands and Armenians were settled in the village. Armenians still live in the village today.
In the "Compendium of Yerevan Province" it is marked as Gushchu, and on the 5-mile map of the Caucasus it is marked as Gushi Valley. In Armenian sources, as well as in official documents of the 20th century, the name of the village is Pambak. Another name for the village was Pambakli.

The toponym is formed from the combination of the Turkic ethnonym "Kushchu" and the word "dera", which means "a long deep hole between two mountains or hills, as well as in a plain." It means "a village in the valley where the Kushchu tribe lives." It is an ethnotoponym. It is a structurally complex toponym.