Written by Gayane Simonyan
The Temple of Garni (latin “Gorneas”) is a first century Hellenic temple near Garni district and the only pagan temple in Armenia that survived
the adoption of Christianity as its official religion in 301AD.
The fortress of
Garni became the last refuge of Armenian king Mithridates where he and his
family were killed by his son in law and his nephew Rhadamitus.
Several buildings and constructions have been identified within the appended space.
Several buildings and constructions have been identified within the appended space.
The earliest
traces of habitation date back to the Neolithic time. A Bronze Age and a
Classical layer followed by 3 distinct medieval layers complete the occupation
history of the site. The fortification circuit is built of huge basalt blocks with
the weight of up to 6 tonnes. The curtain wall has been cleared to a 314 meters
length revealing a series of rectangular towers, two of which border the
ancient gate of entrance.
The peristyle
temple is located at the edge of the cliff. It was dug in 1909–1910 but the
full recognition of its architecture appeared merely in 1933. It was assumed to
be constructed in the first century AD by the Armenian King Tirdates I, presumably
funded by the money the king received from emperor Nero when he visited Rome.
In 1945 there
was found on the territory of local graveyard by Martiros Saryan, a Hellenic
inscription about the construction of the temple. The superscription named
Armenian king Tiridates who built this temple. Probably the inscription meant
Tiridates I of Armenia, despite the fact that some historians assumed that the
inscription indicated Armenian King Tirdates III.
The actual
building is a peripteros temple- a special name given to a type of
ancient Greek or Roman temple
surrounded by a portico with columns- resting
on an elevated podium and was most persumably dedicated to the god Mihr. The
entablement is supported by 24
columns resting on Attic bases.
Unlike other
Greco-Roman temples, this one is made of basalt. Due to a different
interpretation of the existing literary testimonial and the witness provided by
composure, “montage” of the temple started in AD 115. The pretext for its
construction could be the declaration of
Armenia as a Roman province and the temple would have housed the imperial
effigy of Trajan.
Recently
another theory has been launched. According to it, the building must actually
be recognized as the grave of an Armeno-Roman governor Gaius Sohaemus, a famous person in the Roman Empire in the 2nd century
from the Syrian Roman Client Emesene
Dynasty. If it is so, then the temple’s construction
would be dated to AD 175.
The temple of
Garni was ultimately sacked in 1386 by Lenk Temur. In 1679 it was destroyed by
an earthquake. A vast majority of
the original architectural members and building blocks stayed at the site until
20th century, letting the building to be reconstructed in 1969 - 1975.
After the
adoption of Christianity, several
churches and Catholicos’ palace were also constructed at the fortification
site, but they are now ruined like most of the other constructions except the
temple of Garni.
