The precise construction date of the temple is unknown and is subject to debate. In Armenian historiography, the dominant view is that it was built in 77 AD, during the reign of king Tiridates I of Armenia.[1][2] This view has been accepted by some scholars.[3] The date is calculated based on a Greek inscription,[a] discovered by the painter Martiros Saryan in July 1945 at the Garni cemetery, recently brought from a nearby water mill.[5][6] It names Tiridates the Sun (Helios Tiridates) as the founder of the temple.[4][7] Early medieval historian Movses Khorenatsi incorrectly attributed the inscription to Tiridates III.[8] Most scholars now attribute the inscription to Tiridates I.

The following includes an image of the inscription as it stands near the temple today, its textual reconstruction by Ashot G. Abrahamian,[9] an English translation by James R. Russell,[10] and an alternative reading and translation by Poghos Ananian, translated into English by Vrej Nersessian.[11]

Considering that the inscription says the temple was built in the eleventh year of reign of Tiridates I, the temple is believed to have been completed in 77 AD.[8][b] The date is primarily linked to Tiridates I's visit to Rome in 66 AD, where he was crowned by Roman emperor Nero.[c] To rebuild the city of Artaxata, destroyed by the Roman general Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, Nero gave Tiridates 50 million drachmas and provided him with Roman craftsmen. Upon his return to Armenia Tiridates began a major project of reconstruction, which included rebuilding the fortified city of Garni. It is during this period that the temple is thought to have been built.[17] Some scholars argue that the temple may have been built on top of a Urartian temple.[18][19]

In Armenian historiography, the temple is commonly believed to have been dedicated to Mihr,[23] the sun god in the Zoroastrian-influenced Armenian mythology and the equivalent of Mithra. Tiridates, like other Armenian monarchs, considered Mihr their patron. Some scholars have argued that, given the historical context during which the temple was built, i.e. after returning from Rome as king, it would seem natural that Tiridates dedicated the temple to his patron god.[17] Furthermore, in 2011[24] white marble sculptures of bull hooves have been discovered some 20 metres (66 ft) from the temple which could possibly be the remains of a sculpture of the god Mihr, who was often portrayed in a fight with a bull.[25]

Vrej Nersessian argues that while the "design and ornament are typically Roman, the workmen were local, with experience of carving basalt."[8]

Not all scholars are convinced that the structure was a temple. Christina Maranci calls it an Ionic structure with an "unclear function." She writes that "while often identified as temple, it may have been a funerary monument, perhaps serving as a royal tomb."[26] Arshak Fetvadjian described the temple as an "edifice of Roman style for the pantheistic idol cult fashionable in the days of the Arshakists."[27] In 1950 Kamilla Trever reported that according to a different interpretation of the extant literature and the evidence provided by coinage, the erection of the temple started in 115 AD. The pretext for its construction would have been the declaration of Armenia as a Roman province[8] and the temple would have housed the imperial effigy of Trajan.[28]

Richard D. Wilkinson (1982) suggests that the building is a tomb, probably constructed circa 175 AD. This theory is based on a comparison to Graeco-Roman buildings of western Asia Minor (e.g. Nereid Monument, Belevi Mausoleum, Mausoleum at Halicarnassus),[20] the discovery of nearby graves that date to about that time, and the discovery of a few marble pieces of the Asiatic sarcophagus style. Wilkinson furthermore states that there is no direct evidence linking the structure to Mithras or Mihr, and that the Greek inscription attributed to Tiridates I probably refers to a former fortress at the Garni site and not to the colonnaded structure now called the Temple of Garni. He also notes that it is unlikely that a pagan temple would survive destruction during Armenia's 4th-century conversion to Christianity when all other such temples were destroyed. Wilkinson suggests that the structure may be a tomb erected in honor of one of the Romanized kings of Armenia of the late 2nd century.[29][3]

James R. Russell finds the view of the structure being a temple of Mihr baseless. He is also skeptical that the Greek inscription refers to the temple.[30] He opines that the "splendid mausoleum" was erected by Romans living in Armenia.[31] He writes that "Wilkinson convincingly argues [that it] was a tomb of the second century, possibly of one of the Romanized kings of Armenia," possibly Sohaemus, and that it is "unique for the country and testifies to a particularly strong Roman presence."[32]

Maranci notes that its entablature is similar to that of the temple of Antoninus Pius at Sagalassos in western Asia Minor and to the columns of Attalia and concludes that imperial Roman workmen may have been involved in its construction.[26]

In the early fourth century,[d] when Armenian King Tiridates III adopted Christianity as a state religion, virtually all known pagan places of worship were destroyed.[38] The Temple of Garni is the only pagan,[e] Hellenistic,[44] or Greco-Roman[45] structure to have survived the widespread destruction. It remains unknown why it was exempted from destruction, but Tananyan argues that its status as a "masterpiece of art" possibly saved it from destruction.[46] Robert H. Hewsen suggested that it was likely a tomb of a Roman-appointed king of Armenia, not a temple and in the seventh century a church was built immediately next to it and not in its place.[47]

 

An idealized image of Khosrovidukht from the early 20th century.

According to Movses Khorenatsi a "cooling-off house" was built within the fortress of Garni for Khosrovidukht, the sister of Tiridates III. Some scholars believe the temple was thus turned into a royal summer house.[4][42] As its purpose changed the temple underwent some changes. The sacrificial altars in the outside of the temple and the cult statue in the cella were removed. The opening in the roof for skylight was closed. The stone structures for removal of water from the roof were also removed, while the entrance of the temple was transformed and adjusted for residence.[46]

There is a series of Arabic inscriptions on the walls of the temple, dated 9th-10th centuries,[3] possibly indication an effort to convert it into a mosque.[18] There is also an Armenian inscription on the entrance wall of the temple. Dated 1291, it was left by princess Khoshak of Garni, the granddaughter of Ivane Zakarian (commander of Georgian-Armenian forces earlier in the 13th century) and Khoshak's son, Amir Zakare. It tells about the release of the population of Garni from taxes in forms of wine, goats, and sheep.[48] Simeon of Aparan, a poet and educator, made the last written record about the temple before its collapse in his 1593 poem titled "Lamentation on the throne of Trdat" («Ողբանք ի վերայ թախթին Տրդատայ թագաւորին»).[49][50] The Garni fort was damaged when it was captured twice during the Ottoman–Persian Wars, in 1604 and 1638.[51]

The entire colonnade of the temple collapsed in a devastating earthquake on June 4, 1679,[52][53] the epicenter of which was located in the gorge of Garni.[54][55] Most of the original building blocks remained scattered at the site, allowing the building to be reconstructed. As much as 80% of the original masonry and ornamental friezes were at the site by the late 1960s.[56]

European travelers mentioned the temple in their works as early as the 17th century.[57] Jean Chardin (1673, who visited Armenia before the earthquake) and James Morier (1810s)[58] both incorrectly described it through local informants since they never actually visited the site.[20] Upon Robert Ker Porter's visit the fortress was called "Tackt-i-Tiridate" ("throne of Tiridates" in Persian) by the locals. Ker Porter described what he saw as follows: "a confused pile of beautiful fragments; columns, architraves, capitals, friezes, all mingled together in broken disorder."[20][59] Another European to visit and document the ruins of the temple was DuBois de Montpereux, who referred to the fortress as "Takh Terdat".[20] In his 1839 book he proposed a reconstruction plan.[20]

J. Buchan Telfer, Captain in the Royal Navy and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, visited the site in the 1870s and removed a fragment of the architrave bearing a lion head was removed and bequeathed it to the British Museum in 1907.[60] Telfer described the site as follows:

...a large heap of hewn and sculpted grey porphyry piled in utter confusion [...] it is a temple rather than a palace that is indicated by these superb remains; and their Grecian style of architecture may have been due to a desire on the part of the monarch to introduce a taste for higher art among his people [...] portions of the entablature, of the pediment, of cornices, the bases, etc, lie tumbled in marvellous disorder.[61]

 

Robert Ker Porter's drawing of the Garni Gorge (published in 1821).[62] Ruins of the temple can be seen on the promontory on the left.[20]

 

The ruins of the temple in the early 20th century (published in 1918)[63][64]

 

Toros Toramanian pictured sitting on part of the pediment[65]

 

The ruins in 1947[66]

 

A fountain dedicated to the reconstruction by Sahinian (1978)

The archaeologist Aleksey Uvarov proposed putting de Montpereux's reconstruction plan into action at the fifth All-Russian Archaeological Congress in 1880. He proposed that the temple's stones be moved to Tiflis (in Georgia) and be reconstructed there according to de Montpereux's plan.[67] Lori Khatchadourian suggests that the proposal "could be read as an attempt at co-opting Armenia's Roman past to the glory of Russia through the relocation of its most iconic monument to the nearest administrative center."[67] The governor of Erivan, citing technical difficulties, did not implement the plan.[68]

In the subsequent decades scholars such as Nikoghayos Buniatian, Babken Arakelyan, and Nikolay Tokarsky studied the temple.[46] In 1909–11, during an excavation led by Nicholas Marr, the temple ruins were uncovered. Buniatian sought to reconstruct the temple in the 1930s.[68] In 1949 the Armenian Academy of Sciences began major excavations of the Garni fortress site led by Babken Arakelyan. Architectural historian Alexander Sahinian focused on the temple itself. It was not until almost twenty years later, on December 10, 1968, that the Soviet Armenian government approved the reconstruction plan of the temple. A group led by Sahinian began reconstruction works in January 1969. It was completed by 1975,[69] almost 300 years after it was destroyed in an earthquake.[21][70] The temple was almost entirely rebuilt using its original stones, except the missing pieces which were filled with blank (undecorated) stones.[68] In 1978 a fountain-monument dedicated to Sahinian's reconstruction was erected near the temple.[70]

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