Garni

The Garni architectural complex (3rd century BC) was once a mighty fortress which stood on a rocky, triangular plateau rising steeply for the river Azat. The Armenian kings had been summering in Garni to escape the heat of the Ararat valley. The mighty basalt walls testify to the power of the lords guarded, but even they were powerless in the face of treachery. The victim was King Mithidritades who died at the hands of his nephew. Though he had the support of the Roman Empire, the traitor did not reign long, and was overthrown with the aid of Parthia, the rival of the Roman Empire, and the throne went to Tiridates. 

Tiridates started building a beautiful pagan temple - the Sun Temple - on the territory of Garni Fortress (1st century AD). The temple graced the hillside for 17 centuries, evoking wonder and delight with its perfect form and ethereal beauty until a major earthquake destroyed it in 1679. Almost three centuries were to pass before the prominent Russian orientalist Nikolai Marr and his colleague Yakov Smirnov discovered the ruins of the Sun Temple. In the 1930s Professor Nikolai Buniatov made a faithful reconstruction of the temple after a thorough study of the ruins. Restoration work was launched in 1966 and took ten years of hard work to complete.

Now let us take a look at the temple. The raise of the temple has leaves twined around lion masks which are so naturally rounded, that it is hard to believe they are carved in stone and not molded. The small square hall with the altar is surrounded by 24 columns with finely carved capitals. An extensively ornamented roof tops this “temple of coolness’’, which was used as the summer residence of the kings of Armenia after the country was converted to Christianity.

The ruins of the huge palace and baths, built in the 3rd century in the Roman style, are very interesting. The baths were warmed by heated air which passed trough ceramic pipes laid under the floor. There is an inscription in Greek which never fails to mystify visitors. It says: "We worked without remuneration".

Archeologists are still working on the Garni complex. They have discovered many interesting household items, fragments of antique marble statues, inscriptions in Armenian, Aramaic, and Greek.

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