Garni Temple (Kotayk province - Armenia)
N 40° 06.738 E 044° 43.818
38T E 477016 N 4440256
The Garni Temple, located 26 km east of the Armenian capital Yerevan, is one of the most preserved examples of Greco-Roman sacral architecture worldwide and also it is one of the most visited places in Armenia.
Waymark Code: WMKJN8
Location: Armenia
Date Posted: 04/22/2014
Views: 5
The Garni Temple, located 26 km east of the Armenian capital Yerevan, is one of the most preserved examples of Greco-Roman sacral architecture worldwide and also it is one of the most visited places in Armenia.
The Temple of Garni is a first century Hellenic temple near Garni, Armenia. It is the only pagan temple in Armenia (and also in the entire former Soviet Union) that survived the Christianization of the country in 301 AD.
The peristyle temple is situated at the edge of the existing cliff. It was excavated in 1909–1910 but the full publication of its architecture appeared only in 1933. It has been surmised that it was constructed in the 1st century AD by the King Tiridates I of Armenia, probably funded with money the king received from emperor Nero during his visit to Rome. In 1945, a Hellenic inscription about the construction of the temple was found on the territory of local cemetery by Martiros Saryan. The inscription named Armenian king Tiridates who built this temple. Likely the inscription meant Tiridates I of Armenia, in spite of some historians including Hakob Manandyan assumed that the inscription mentioned King Tiridates III of Armenia.
The actual building is a peripteros temple resting on an elevated podium and was most likely dedicated to the god Mihr. The entablature is supported by 24 Ionic columns resting on Attic bases. Unlike other Greco-Roman temples, it is made of basalt. According to a different interpretation of the extant literary testimonia and the evidence provided by coinage, the erection of the temple started in AD 115. The pretext for its construction would be the declaration of Armenia as a Roman province and the temple would have housed the imperial effigy of Trajan. In recent years another theory has been put forward. It has been suggested that the building must actually be identified as the tomb of an Armeno-Roman ruler, probably Sohaemus. If that is the case, its construction would be dated in AD 175. The temple was eventually sacked in 1386 by Timur Lenk. In 1679 it was destroyed by an earthquake. Most of the original architectural members and building blocks remained at the site until the 20th century, allowing the building to be reconstructed between 1969 and 1975. [wiki]