Garni Temple

Garni Temple, built in the first century AD, is the only standing Greco-Roman colonnaded building in Armenia and the wider former Soviet Union. It collapsed in an earthquake in 1679 and was carefully reassembled from its original stones in the 1970s, and it stands on a promontory above the Azat River gorge.

Walk around the colonnade and the remains of a royal bathhouse with a mosaic floor, then take in the view down into the gorge. Below, the Symphony of Stones is a cliff of tall, regular basalt columns that look as if they were cut by hand.

Garni is about 40 minutes from Yerevan and is almost always combined with Geghard Monastery, a little further up the valley. Village families nearby often demonstrate lavash bread being baked in a tonir oven.