Excursion to Garni Temple - Geghard monastery - Lake Sevan (Sevanavank)

Pagan Garni Temple built in the 1st century by the Armenian King Tiridates I and dedicated to the God of the Sun Areg (Mihr). The temple is at the edge of a triangular cliff, which overlooks the ravine of the Azat River and the Gegham mountains.

The temple is a peripteros built on an elevated podium. The temple is supported by a total of twenty-four 6.54-metre high columns of the Ionic order: 6 in the front and back and 8 on the sides.

9 large steps with a height of 30 centimeters give the majesty and solemnity to the building, built in Hellenistic architectural forms. It’s the only extant monument in the territory of Armenia, related to the era of paganism and Hellenism.

In 1679 the temple suffered from a strong earthquake, and during the Soviet power in the 70s it was rebilt.

The 3rd-4th centuries floor mosaics are perhaps the most impressive part of the bath house. That in the main mosaic depicts a water scene with the sea goddess Thetis and other mythological figures set against. The inscriptions on the mosaic are Greek.

ΜΗΔΕΝ ΛΑΒΟΝΤΕΣ ΗΡΙΑΣΑΜΕΘΑ ΚΑΝΕΝΑ ΝΕΚΡΟ ΔΕ ΜΑΣ ΕΔΩΣΕ Η ΘΑΛΑΣΣΑ ΟΥΤΕ Ο ΩΚΕΑΝΟΣ (which can be translated to mean, "Worked without pay").

The Geghard (XIII century) - a monastery complex, entered in the list of World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.

The full name is Geghardavank, literally "spear monastery". The name of the monastery complex comes from the Spear of Christ (Spear of Longinus), which the Roman warrior Longinus drove into Jesus Christ. The spear is now kept in the museum of the Etchmiadzin cathedral.

Some of the churches within the monastery complex are entirely dug out of the cliff rocks, others are little more than caves, while others are elaborate structures, with both architecturally complex walled sections and rooms deep inside the cliff.

The monastery was founded in the 4th century, according to tradition by Gregory the Illuminator. The site is that of a spring arising in a cave, which had been sacred in pre-Christian times, hence one of the names by which it was known, Ayrivank (the Monastery of the Cave). The first monastery was destroyed by Arabs in the 9th century. Nothing has remained of the structures of Ayrivank.

The main church was built in 1215 under the auspices of the brothers Zakare and Ivane, the generals of Queen Tamar of Georgia, who took back most of Armenia from the Turks.

Lake Sevan is a freshwater lake in the Armenian highlands. It is the largest lake in the Caucasus. It is guaranteed as the largest source of fresh water in the region. It is fed by 28 rivers and streams. Only 10% of the incoming water is drained by the Hrazdan River, while the remaining 90% evaporates.

Sevan originated during the early Quaternary when a Palaeo-Sevan, ten times larger than the present lake, came into existence by tectonic formation. The current lake was formed some 25 to 30 thousand years ago.

The Lake Sevan consists of two unequal parts called Big Sevan and Small Sevan. In the north-western part is located the Sevan's Peninsula which is famous for its medieval monasteries and khachkars (cross-stones).

The territory of modern-day Sevan has been populated since the 3rd millennium BC. The cyclopean fortress of Metsep dating back to the 3rd millennium BC stands just north of the city.

Sevanavank - a monastery in the north-west coast of the lake. The monastery is located on Sevan peninsula, which was previously a small island.

According to an inscription in one of the churches, the monastery of Sevan was founded in 874 by Princess Mariam, the daughter of Ashot I (who became a king a decade later). At the time, Armenia was still struggling to free itself from Arab rule.

The monastery was strict as it was mainly intended for those monks from Etchmiadzin who had sinned. Jean-Marie Chopin, a French explorer of the Caucasus, visited there in 1830 and wrote of a regimen restraining from meat, wine, youth or women. Another explorer visited the monastery in 1850 and wrote of how manuscripts were still being copied manually.

The two churches of the complex, Surp Arakelots meaning the "Holy Apostles" and Surp Astvatsatsin meaning the "Holy Mother of God", are both cruciform plan structures with octagonal tambours. The two are quite similar to each other in appearance. Adjacent are the ruins of a gavit whose roof was originally supported by six wooden columns. Some of the remains of the gavit and its columns can be seen in the Yerevan Museum of History.

(The price is given per vehicle, regardless of the number of participants)

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