Garni Temple

sacred architecture

Key facts

Status: Museum (part of a larger protected area ), occasional neopagan (Hetanist) shrine
Type: Pagan temple or tomb
Architectural style: Ancient Greek / Roman
Location: Garni , Kotayk Province , Armenia
Completed: 1st or 2nd century AD
Destroyed: 1679 earthquake
Operator: Armenian Ministry of Culture
Height: 10.7 metres (35 ft)
Material: Basalt
Floor area: 15.7 by 11.5 m (52 by 38 ft)
Architects: Alexander Sahinian (reconstruction, 1969–75)

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Wikidata facts

Image: Templo de Garni, Armenia, 2016-10-02, DD 03.jpg

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Commons category: Garni Temple
directions: ամրոցի հվ եզրին
inception: 0050-00-00

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Article

The Garni Temple is a classical colonnaded structure in the village of Garni, in central Armenia, around 30 km (19 mi) east of Yerevan. Built in the Ionic order, it is the best-known structure and symbol of pre-Christian Armenia. Considered an eastern outpost of the Greco-Roman world, it is the only largely preserved Hellenistic building in the former Soviet Union.

It is conventionally identified as a pagan temple to the sun god Mihr (Mithra) built by King Tiridates I in the first century AD. A competing hypothesis sees it as a second century tomb. It collapsed in a 1679 earthquake, but much of its fragments remained on the site. Renewed interest in the 19th century led to excavations in the early and mid-20th century. It was reconstructed in 1969–75, using the anastylosis technique. It is one of the main tourist attractions in Armenia and the central shrine of Armenian neopaganism.