Hellenistic temple Garni and cave monastery Geghard

This tour is one of the most popular among our guests. Both monuments, and the pagan temple of Garni, and the cave monastery of Geghard are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Monuments are located in picturesque places, so the tour will be interesting for nature lovers.

The road to these objects runs along a small picturesque pass. We will pass by the large country village of Dzorakhpur and make a small stop at the arch, built in honor of the outstanding Armenian poet Yegishe Charents. From here we will see a typical landscape for Armenia and biblical Ararat in all its glory.

Continuing our journey we will reach the village of Garni, where we will visit the fortress, which served as the residence of Armenian kings for 1500 years. On the territory of this fortress, a Hellenistic temple dedicated to the sun god Mithra has been preserved. This is the only surviving pagan temple in the CIS.

On the territory of the fortress there are a number of other buildings - the ruins of the Church of St. Zion, the throne room, living quarters and a Greco-Roman bath. In the bath, a mosaic floor has been preserved, where a mosaic of fifteen shades is lined with fish, nereids and figures of a man and a woman, symbolizing the ocean and the sea.

We will see the fantastically beautiful gorge of the Azat River, where you can go down if you want by SUV. If you look from above in the gorge, you can see the ideal shape polyhedrons, 200 meters high, similar to organ pipes. This is a natural monument, which is called the “symphony of stones” or “stone organ”. An even more impressive spectacle opens up when it comes down.

Not far from Garni, in the gorge is the monastery of Geghard (the monastery of the spear), which received its name, because here in the Middle Ages the legendary Spear of Destiny or the Spear of Longinus was kept, with which the Roman legionary Guy-Cassius pierced the side of the crucified Christ. The complex consists of one ground structure - the main temple of the complex and a number of temples carved into the thickness of the rocks.

Well, if you wish, on the way back you can go to the village of Arinj and see another unique creation - the Levon cave. Master Levon for 23 years alone, cut down under his house a unique cave depth of 21 meters with numerous underground passages, spiral staircases and rooms.

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