Garni Temple
Garni (Armenian Գառնի ) is located at the small town of Garni is a temple complex located in the Kotayk province of Armenia, about 32 km southeast of Yerevan.
The first traces of human settlement dates back to the third millennium BC and are grouped around a defensible loop of the Azat. In the 8th century BC, the king urartischen Argishti I. conquered the area. The first written mention of a fortress that towers over Garni comes from the Roman historian Tacitus in the middle of the first century BC An excavation of the remains was the first time 1909-1910, the Soviet archaeologists led away in 1949. The excavation revealed that the called fortress was built much earlier than the summer residence of the Armenian royal houses of Orontids and Artaxiden, probably in the 3rd century BC The fortress of Garni (Latin Gorneas ) was the last refuge of Mithridates, where he and his family were murdered by his stepson and nephew Rhadamistos. Several buildings have been identified within the fortified area, eg the two-storey summer palace, a bath complex, a church dating back to 897 AD. , a cemetery and the most famous and best preserved building, a Greco- Roman temple of ionic composition.
The bath complex in the northern part of the excavation area has a well-preserved hypocaust and on one of his courses a mosaic of clear Hellenistic type. It included depictions of Greek mythological figures, such as Tethys, Oceanus, Thetis (mother of Achilles ). The accompanying inscription was written in Koine: ΜΗΔΕΝ ΛΑΒΟΝΤΕΣ ΗΡΓΑΣΑΜΕΘΑ ( we worked without getting something for it).
The systematic excavation of the site has promoted six occupation levels to days. The oldest traces date from the Neolithic period. A layer of the Bronze and Iron Age is crowned by three clearly medieval layers. The fixing ring is assembled from large basalt blocks weighing up to six tonnes. The ring walls were exposed for a length of 314 m and reveal some rectangular towers, two of which are connected to the ancient gate.
The temple is located on the edge of a natural elevation. He was 1909-1910 excavated. It is believed that the temple was built by King Tiridates I., probably with money that he had received from emperor Nero during his visit to Rome. In 1945, Greek inscriptions were found with regard to the building of the temple of Martiros Saryan at the cemetery. The inscriptions pointed to Tiridates as the builder of the temple. The inscriptions probably my Tiridates I of Armenia, whereas some historians as Hakob Manandyan think if it were Tiridates III. of Armenia.
The building is a peripteral on a straightened base and was probably dedicated to the god Mihr. The entablature is supported by 24 Ionic columns. Unlike other Greco- Roman temples, it is made of basalt. One other interpretation of the existing literary evidence and coin finds, according to the construction of the temple began in 115 AD The occasion for the building would then probably the inclusion of Armenia as a province in the Roman Empire. The temple would have then probably housed a statue of the Emperor Trajan. In recent years, another theory has emerged: According to the temple should be regarded as grave an Armenian- Roman personality, probably the Sohemus. If so, the temple was 175 AD. built. The temple was sacked by Tamerlane in 1386. In 1679 it was destroyed by an earthquake. Most of the original structure remained but until the 20th century on the spot, which made a reconstruction of the building 1969-1975 possible.
After the conversion of Armenia to Christianity some churches and the Palace of Catholicos were built within the fortifications. These are today, though in ruins.