[8] Besides the temple, the site contains a Bronze Age cyclopean masonry wall, a cuneiform inscription by king Argishti I of Urartu (who called it Giarniani),[10] a Roman bath with a partly preserved mosaic floor with a Greek inscription,[11] ruins of palace, other "paraphernalia of the Greco-Roman world",[12] the medieval round church of St. Sion (Zion), and other objects (e.g., medieval khachkars).

[28] This date is calculated based on Tiridates's visit to Rome in 66 AD, during which he was crowned by Roman emperor Nero following a peace treaty ending the war with Parthia over Armenia (58–63).

[33] Nina Garsoïan posited that it is "usually dated to the first century on the basis of its style and use of a dry-masonry technique with swallowtail clamps, rather than the later mortar binder.

"[16] In Armenia, the temple is commonly believed to have been dedicated to Mihr, the sun god in the Zoroastrian-influenced Armenian mythology and the equivalent of Mithra.

Among early sceptics, Kamilla Trever suggested in 1950 that based on a different interpretation of the extant literature and the evidence provided by coinage, the erection of the temple started in 115 AD.

[43] In 1982 Richard D. Wilkinson suggested that the building is a tomb, probably constructed c. 175 AD in honor of one of the Romanized kings of Armenia of the late 2nd century.

[51] Hewsen argued, based on the construction of a church in the 7th century next to it rather than in its place, that the building was "more likely the tomb of one of the Roman-appointed kings of Armenia," such as Tiridates I or Sohaemus (r.

[9] In the early fourth century,[i] when King Tiridates III adopted Christianity as Armenia's state religion, all pagan places of worship in the country were destroyed by Gregory the Illuminator.

[61] According to Movses Khorenatsi a "cooling-off house" (tun hovanots) was built within the fortress of Garni for Khosrovidukht, the sister of Tiridates III.

[9] The walls of the temple bear six Arabic inscriptions in the Kufic style and one in Persian in the naskh script, which have all been paleographically dated to the ninth to tenth centuries.

Khoshak, the granddaughter of Ivane I Zakarian, recorded the exemption of the people of Garni from taxes paid in wine, goats, and sheep.

[14][88] Another European to visit and document the ruins of the temple was Frédéric DuBois de Montperreux, who proposed a reconstruction of the building in his 1839 book,[14][89] which Wilkinson described as "rather inaccurate.

"[91] John Buchan Telfer, who visited in the 1870s,[92] removed a fragment of the architrave bearing a lion head,[o] which he bequeathed to the British Museum, where it remains to this day.

[93] In 1880, the Russian archaeologist Aleksey Uvarov, possibly inspired by the contemporaneous relocation of the Pergamon Altar from Asia Minor to Germany, proposed that the stones be moved to Tiflis and be reconstructed there according to de Montpereux's plan.

[94] 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.

[97] Kamilla Trever later wrote that these works were not archaeological excavations in the strict sense, but rather consisted mostly of uncovering, cleaning up and categorizing the fragments.

[104][105] Along with architect Konstantine Hovhannisyan, he partly reerected its lower sections in 1933–34, which was later found to contain numerous errors and was subsequently reverted before its eventual reconstruction.

[111] In 1949 the Armenian Academy of Sciences began systematic excavations of the Garni fortress led by Babken Arakelyan, with Alexander Sahinian focusing on the temple itself.

[119][113] Missing pieces were filled with unornamented stones[113][95] to provide visual differentiation between the old and the new,[113] making the reconstruction "quite recognizable to a trained eye.

[s] Henry A. Judd, Chief Historical Architect of the National Park Service who visited in 1974, praised the lack of attempt at "fakery or antiquing" as an "admirable approach".

[119] Bagrat Ulubabyan wrote that the reconstruction was costly and involved a group of skilled craftsmen, the most advanced modern techniques in architecture and the best construction materials.

[135] 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.

[136][137][t] William H. McNeill described it as "small and undistinguished,"[139] Claude Cox called it "delicate",[140] while Dickran Kouymjian found it "splendid" and admired the "elegance of its proportions.

"[142] Lang pointed to the use of patterns found at Garni on the carved stone friezes of Soviet-era public buildings and apartment blocks in Yerevan and elsewhere.

[147] Tananyan proposes that ascending these steps compels individuals to feel humbled and exert physical effort to reach the altar.

Sculpted on both of these pedestals is Atlas, the Greek mythological Titan who bore the weight of the earth, seemingly attempting to support the entire temple on its shoulders.

[6][u] Giusto Traina noted that its Greco-Roman architecture "gives the impression of standing in an outpost of Western civilization", thus fueling Armenian national pride far more than the glories of Tigranes the Great.

[126] Traina suggested that its reconstruction was motivated by the desire of Soviet Armenian archaeologists to emphasize that the grandeur of Armenia did not begin with Christianity.

[172] Among its visitors have been several presidents,[w] opera singer Montserrat Caballé,[177] American TV personalities Khloé and Kim Kardashian,[178] and Conan O'Brien,[179] Russian pop star Philipp Kirkorov.

[186][187] Neopagans celebrated the "return" of Satala Aphrodite, attributed to Anahit, at the temple in September 2024 when the bronze head was brought to Armenia for temporary exhibition.