Temple of a Forgotten God

No, this isn’t the Acropolis, and it ain’t Greece. It’s the Garni Temple in Armenia. It’s the only Greco-Roman colonnaded structure in the former Soviet Union.

While we bake in the UAE’s hot summer sun, trapped by COVID-19 and can’t go anywhere for a holiday, I will continue to write stories of our adventures of a time when travelling was OK. When will these times come back??? Sigh! What a waste of a summer…

Continuing on our adventures in Armenia, what’s a visit to Geghard without visiting Garni?

Garni lies on the road to Geghard. The Garni Temple was thought to have been built for the Sun God, before Christian times (meaning a helluva long time ago, …like 2000 years!). Garni is only 10km away from Geghard, but they couldn’t be more different. While Geghard is tucked into the sides of mountains, secluded, with dark and dank chamber-caves going into the hills, Garni is right out there in the open, on top of a rocky promontory jutting out into a gorge, with no trees or shade covering it. It actually collapsed in an earthquake in the 17th century, but it was re-erected using the same stones (like a jigsaw puzzle) sometime in the 1970’s. Here’re the photos.


Temple of Garni, Armenia




The Garni temple is on a promontory surrounded by a gorge – views of the gorge abound




At the Garni Temple …no, there’s nothing inside (what a let-down, huh?)




More views of Garni Gorge, from the Garni Temple


And here (one of the restaurants beside Garni Temple) is where we had an Armenian lunch before we proceeded to the Geghard Monastery (yup, we actually visited Garni before Geghard…) The lady serving us was programmed to speak only one word, ‘mm-hmmm.’ “Will it be fast?” “Mm-hmmm.” (It wasn’t fast). “How big is the portion?” “Mm-hmmm.” “Does it come with bread?” “Mm-hmmm.” Heck, she’s like Groot (from the Guardians of the Galaxy). We switched to sign language

That’s it. Short picture post done.