Garni

Garni Pagan Temple

Garni is a temple complex located in the Kotayk Province of Armenia, situated approximately 32km southeast from Yerevan. It is officially known as the Garni Historical and Cultural Museum Reserve, which includes the temple, a bath complex, a royal summer palace, the 7th century church of St. Sion and several other minor structures, including medieval khachkars. It was probably built in the 1stcentury AD by king Tiridates I as a temple to the sun god Mithra (known as Mihr in Armenian). After Armenia's conversion to Christianity in the early 4thcentury, it was converted into a royal summer house of Khosrovidukht, the sister of Tiridates III. Garni Pagan Temple is the only Greco-Roman colonnaded building in Armenia and the former Soviet Union, the best-known structure and symbol of pre-Christian Armenia.