Millennium upon millennium, the volcanoes erupted lava. As it cooled it
solidified and covered the earth with a shell of stone. Mountains, gorges, turbulent rivers, waterfalls, and lakes surrounded by
grim, forbidding rocks, were the cradle of the Armenian people.
Stones, stones... A kingdom of stones! Life would seem impossible here.
Yet people have been living here since time immemorial.
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| Travel to ancient Armenia! |
They built dwellings, fortresses and temples of stone. They planted and
grew vines, trees and grain in stone. Stone accompanies the Armenian through
life, it is linked with the whole history of Armenia. It is both the fortune
and misfortune of the people.
On the outskirts of Goris. high up in the Zangezur mountains, the rocks
have been shaped into fantastic statues by the sun, the rains and the winds.
Legend has it that when Tamerlane approached these parts with his horsemen, he
stopped in astonishment, taking these statues for a strange, invincible army.
And the hitherto intrepid conqueror retreated from Goris.
Nature suggested the forms to the Armenian architects, and sketched the
rough draft which they elaborated in detail, developing an inimitable architectural
style. Look at the tapering rocks of Gegard and Goris, look at the perfectly
flat tops of Lori, and look at the flowing contours of the Gegami mountains.
Surely it is from here that the modern Armenian architects acquired their
perfection of line and design, and their amazing sense of proportion and
rhythm. Present-day architects are as skilled as their celebrated predecessors
in blending their buildings with the landscape. They also have a way of
combining the traditions of ancient architecture with the features of the
modern age.
Armenia is one of the world’s most
fascinating museums. There are more than four thousand unique stone monuments
on its relatively small territory – cromlechs and dolmens from the Bronze Age. Urartu
fortresses and heathen temples, early – Christian churches, medieval monastery
schools and castles crowning the mountain tops.
Rejas Films production presents a documentary film "My Armenia" in english
Solid walls built from smoothly hewn enormous basalt slabs rise on both
sides of the Garni fortress gates. The walls run down to the edge of the
precipice where the steep unscaleable cliffs take over the protection of the
fortress from enemy invasion – Nature's own wise solution to the problem of
defence.
This is how Muratsan, the Armenian classic, described
the fortress centuries later:
"The scenery around ihe plateau, crowned with the fortress, was
majestic and forbidding. Towering rocks, strangely shaped cliffs, frightening
chasms, deep gorges, arrogantly crenellated, beautiful mountains stretched away
to the horizon, in front of the fortress, a frothing stream hurtled down from a
great height to Row into the Azat River. On the northern side, in addition to
the semicircular walls and towers, the fortress was protected by the
overhanging cliffs which merged with Mt. Geg in the distance From the east and
the west it was well-defended by its walls and towers made from smoothly hewn
basalt slabs, secured with lead and iron. On the southeastern hill, practically
on the boundary line of the fortress, loomed the sombre crenellated edifices of
the royal palace, and also Trdat's magnificent summer palace whose porticoes
were supported by twenty-four tall Ionic columns. The statues and the high,
carved vaults of the palace – creations of Roman art – were still intact..."
What will the traveller see today?
A spreading walnut tree casts its shadow on the
ground, vines on the stones, late cucumbers are ripening on their neat
beds, apricot trees have donned their vivid autumn finery, and through their
crowns one can glimpse Ihe arm of a crane and hear the purring of a motor. What
a peaceful scene to find in this fortress which had once been besieged by
hordes of invaders!
But let us follow the sound of the purring motor, and see what is there.
Basalt capitals, friezes, broken cornices, pieces of pediments are lying on the ground. They are fragments of the Sun temple, built in the
first century A. D. and destroyed
in the earthquake
of 1679. Each stone has been cleaned of the dust of centuries, and numbered. Now they will be laid in place, for restoration
work on the ancient temple has begun.
The ruins of the Sun temple are so spellbinding that you cannot tear
your fascinated gaze away. You stand there, enchanted and speechless, gazing at
the remains of ravished beamy… The purring of the motor makes a discordant sound, crashing into the tranquillising silence
of eternity.
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