Archaeological site · Garni, Kotayk
Garni Temple
Գառնու հեթանոսական տաճար
A Greco-Roman colonnaded temple of grey basalt on a cliff promontory above the Azat River gorge, attributed to King Tiridates I and reconstructed by 1975 after a 1679 earthquake brought it down.
Where it is
40.1120, 44.7290
Why go
The temple is the centrepiece of a wider reserve rather than a standalone building. Around it run the remains of a fortress wall with 14 towers, a 3rd-century bathhouse with a mosaic floor, and the ruins of the 7th-century church of Saint Sion. The reconstruction combined surviving original blocks with newly quarried basalt, which is worth knowing before judging what is ancient. Below the village, the Azat gorge holds the hexagonal basalt columns known as the Symphony of Stones, and Geghard monastery lies further up the same valley. Garni is a 45-minute drive from Yerevan.
Near Garni Temple
Monastery
Geghard Monastery
A monastery at the entrance to the upper Azat valley near Goght, where towering cliffs enclose a main church and chambers cut directly into the rock.
8 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monument
Charents Arch
A memorial arch near Voghjaberd on the way to Garni, built in 1957 to a design by architect Rafael Israyelyan and dedicated to the poet Yeghishe Charents, looking out towards Mount Ararat.
10 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Archaeological site
Erebuni Fortress
The hilltop citadel of Arin Berd in south-east Yerevan, founded in 782 BC by the Urartian king Argishti I, whose cuneiform foundation inscription records the name from which Yerevan's own derives.
17 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Archaeological site
Dvin Archaeological Site
A large mound between Hnaberd and Verin Dvin on the Ararat plain marking Dvin, a capital of early medieval Armenia and seat of the Catholicos until the Mongols destroyed it.
18 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ