Garni Fortress

The Garni Temple is a classical colonnaded structure in the village of Garni, in central Armenia, around 30 km east of Yerevan. Built in the Ionic order, it is the best-known structure and symbol of pre-Christian Armenia. It has been described as the "easternmost building of the Greco-Roman world" and the only largely preserved Hellenistic building in the former Soviet Union.

Built in the Ionic order, it is conventionally identified as a pagan temple built by King Tiridates I in the first century AD as a temple to the sun god Mihr. A competing hypothesis sees it as a second century tomb. It collapsed in a 1679 earthquake, but much of its fragments remained on the site. Renewed interest in the 19th century led to excavations in the early and mid-20th century. It was reconstructed in 1969–75, using the anastylosis technique. It is one of the main tourist attractions in Armenia and the central shrine of Hetanism.