Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Garni and Gerghard



On mom's last weekend, we travelled to Garni and Gerghard to see two very, very old buildings. Garni was originally a pagan temple, but for some reason was the only one spared destruction when Armenia became a Christian nation in 301. Garni then became a summer residence for Armenian royalty; it is surrounded on three sides by 5000 meter cliffs and the scenery is spectacular. Gerhard is a monastary carved into a cliff. The Armenian Apostolic priests were conducting services when we were there. They sang beautifully and filled the church with incense. We also saw some animals - they still bring them as sacrifices. Luckily we missed that part. I am only posting pictures of Garni; the camera battery died.

2 comments:

Bill said...

Neat pictures of the temples and the Vernissage and

Bill said...

Great pictures of the temple and monastary and Vernissage and the Republic Square. Great memories for you, Lori and for the kids. Hope you are all fine. Good luck with school and the job. We miss you.