With such beautiful weather and a whole week off of school, this was the perfect day to head off to see nearby Garni and Geghard. The temple of Garni is a first century Hellenic temple. It is the only pagan temple in Armenia that survived when the country converted to Christianity. An earthquake damaged it in the 1600s, but it was restored in the early 1970s. The building style is different from what is seen elsewhere in the country.
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| The temple is located in an area with nice views. |
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| Ceiling detail |
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| Been there, done that. Ryan is ready to move on. |
You can google information on it just as well as I can if you really want to know about it.
Less than 8 miles away is the Geghard Monastery. Combining it in the trip to Garni is a no-brainer. The main chapel was built in 1215. The complex is partially carved out of the mountain and was pretty cool to see. You can google it if you want all of the details and better pictures.
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| Looking down from the path leading up from parking to the monastery. |
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| Me with my sweeties |
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| This is detail inside the first of the rock-cut chambers. |
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| Spring water came from this wall and flowed from a small pool across the room. |
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| Many people were lighting candles and praying in the first room we entered. |
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| Justin was not too happy about being up there. |
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| Art class field trip? |
The boys were pretty good sports. They are not particularly interested in old buildings. I told them that it was something that I wanted to see and that it made sense to see it while we lived in Armenia and it was so close. I told them that once we move we probably won't ever be back here. Justin agreed that it made sense to see this stuff now while it didn't cost us a lot of money to travel. Plus it only wasted half of their nine days off from school.
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I had to take a picture before we ate this delicious sweet bread. Not sure if 1000 drams ($2.50 US) was a rip-off
or not. I think it was worth every penny. |
We got some of the delicious sweet bread that was being sold along the walk up to the monastery.The boys were given the option of going straight home or stopping in the city for lunch. The vote was to eat bread in the car and just go home. The 28 miles took us about an hour an a half. The road conditions leave much to be desired in places and for some reason the traffic through Yerevan was insane. The boys both fell asleep in the car. They haven't done that in a long time.
