Armenia is blessed and bunged with more temples, churches and monasteries than you can count. Garni is a Greek temple situated in mountainous countryside and a listed UNESCO World Heritage Site.
At the end of this path, against a spectacular backdrop is Garni Temple, Armenia.
You can of course stay in Garni itself (a small village) but most travellers base themselves in Yerevan and do Garni as a day trip (often tied in with a visit to Geghard Monastery as well).
1. Getting from Central Yerevan to GAI Poghots/Mercedes Benz
Head to Abovyan Street near the corner with Koryun Street and take bus 22 or 51 which heads out of the town (northeast) to GAI Poghots where you will see a Mercedes Benz dealership. Your aim is to get to the Mercedes Benz dealership on GAI Poghots Street.
2. Getting from GAI Poghots to Garni
From GAI Poghots, on the opposite side of the side road by the Mercedes Benz dealership, there is a small bus station for mini-buses and marshrutkys. Here there is a second bus you need to get out to Garni, which is a lovely journey up through hills and countryside and takes around 30 minutes. You’ll arrive in Garni Village, a small village that has a slight tourist trade due to the Temple.
The views into the Canyon and the Symphony of Stones: You can hike up to these rocks, which are hexagonal and known as the “symphony of stones”, not dissimilar to the Giants Causeway rocks in Northern Ireland, without the crashing waves of course!
Exterior of Garni Temple: Walk around, admire it and wonder how on earth it’s still here considering that it was built in the FIRST Century.
Interior of Garni Temple: if you’re feeling religious say a prayer or sing a song. Many people do.
Church Grounds: There is a lot of debris and ruins in the church grounds so you can marvel at the size the entire site would have been.
Bath House: There’s now a cover on the top and it’s enclosed but you can see the remains of what was once a Bath House.
After you’re done with Garni, it would be silly not to also visit Geghard Monastery which can be reached by heading to Goght next. We took a Marsjrutky there, then shared a taxi. Other spots to take in include: Haghpat, Tatev, Sanahin and Gandzasar (which is actually in Nagorno Karabakh).
Jonny Blair is a self confessed traveling nomad who founded and blogs at Don’t Stop Living. He sees every day as an adventure. Since leaving behind his home town of Bangor in Northern Ireland ten years ago he has traveled to all seven continents, working his way through various jobs and funding it all with hard work and an appetite for travel. Don’t Stop Living, a lifestyle of travel’ contains over 1,000 stories and tips from his journeys round the globe. He wants to show others how easy it is to travel the world, give them some ideas and encourage them to do the same but most of all he aims to constantly live a lifestyle of travel. He is currently based in Hong Kong and on Twitter @jonnyblair.
