According to the Greek inscription placed at the entrance of the historical site, the Garni Pagan Temple was built by the Armenian King Tiridates I in 77 AD. The temple is dedicated to the sun god Mihr, whose statue once stood inside, but was destroyed after Armenia adopted Christianity.
The Garni Temple is supported by 24 columns, which many ethnographers believe symbolize the 24 hours of the day. It was constructed using a unique technique and large basalt stones. After Christianity was adopted as the state religion in Armenia in 301 AD, most pagan temples and other pagan structures were destroyed and replaced with churches. However, Garni was considered too beautiful to demolish, and the king’s sister reportedly persuaded him to preserve it as a summer residence. Though the temple stood for nearly 13 more centuries, Christian leaders eventually built a church nearby — not in place of the temple, but next to it.
Near the temple, not far from the main structure, there are also the remains of a Roman-style bathhouse. It was constructed with a sophisticated heating system: steam created in a nearby furnace traveled beneath the stone floor, allowing for three different rooms with hot, warm, and cold water.
The bathhouse even had a changing room, where a mosaic has been preserved up to this day. It includes an inscription that says, “We worked but received nothing,” which suggests that the structure may have been built either by enslaved laborers or as a gift to the royal family.
The entire temple was destroyed by a massive earthquake in the 17th century. Nearly 200 years later, with the help of local residents and an architectural team, the scattered stones were taken out from the canyon, recovered, and restoration work began. Today, the temple stands as proudly and beautifully as it did in its earliest days.The site is surrounded by the Azat River canyon and dramatic cliffs formed by volcanic flow — a natural wonder the locals refer to as the Symphony of Stones.
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