Hello dear Hive friends!

Today let me introduce you to my trip to Armenia! I'm sure it will excite you as much as it excited me! To be honest, a trip to Armenia was not my first choice. One thing I regret now since I was completely ignorant of how many beauties this small country hides!

Personally chosen in my travels, to visit apart from the big cities and small provincial villages or towns! So also on this trip, apart from the metropolitan center of Armenia, Yerevan - which I hope to present to you in another post.

We visited the village of Garni, where we spent the night there to visit the pagan temple of the same name, the near village Kotayk, with the Symphony of Stones (the natural attraction) and of course we couldn't pick up the monastery Geghard, which was nearby!

Garni

So our adventure begins in the village of Garni, whick is about 25 km away from the capital of Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia. We stayed in a traditional guest house, where the owners provided one of the most special breakfasts you could eat! Armenian breakfast, which included eggs, cheeses and vegetables, all from the production of the owners of the guesthouse.

They also gave us freshly baked Armenian Lavash bread, which we were lucky enough to see being kneaded and baked!

Here you see the outdoor kitchen where almost everything was prepared. Traditional stone oven and the tadur type oven, where Lavash was baked

Our first stop on today's excursion, the pagan temple of Garni. Luckily for us it was a few minutes away from where we were staying and the weather conditions were perfect.

And behold, the only Hellenistic pagan temple that exists in Armenia and in general in all the countries of the USSR!

The temple is believed to have been built by King Tiridates I in the first century AD. as a temple of the Sun God Michr (roman known as Mithras). Of course, there are also opinions that it was a burial monument, with the first assumption being the most prevalent

The temple consists of 24 columns, which symbolize the 24 hours of the day

According to our guide, inside was the statue of the god, while rays of the Sun fell through a square opening in its roof. The floor of the room was filled with water or oil, resulting in a special play in the eyes of the then visitors, with the reflections and the statue of Michr, so as to help them believe in the miracle of the Divine Sun.

One of the most shocking things about the temple and its details is that in 1679 Armenia was hit by a strong earthquake that destroyed numerous buildings. among them the specific temple! After about 300 years, the ruins were collected and restored.

Although it was a pagan temple, in the courtyard area there are stone slabs with crosses from the early period of the adoption of Christianity

Today it may not function as a place of worship of the sun god, but he does not stop blessing me with his bright rays!

Since it was getting late, the monument was full of visitors and so it was difficult to take a "clean" photo of tourists, so some shots of the back of the temple!

Maybe another Hiver taking the pictures for his post, hope to catch up 😝!

An stone inscription in Armenian, unfortunately I forgot to ask what it says and what it refers to. Do we have any friend from Armenia to help us?

The panoramic view from the temple unfortunately cannot be captured in any photo, a small idea in the following photos

When you are in the temple of the God of Sun and light, you must take a commemorative photo with him!

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I hope you liked the post about the temple in Garni, but the beauties from Armenia don't stop there! Our day continued with our visit to the Geghard monastery, something I intend to show you in my next post! I look forward to hearing from you in the comments! Kisses