In 2004, the site was officially named the Karahunj (Carahunge) Observatory, by parliamentary decree (Government Decision No.

[7] The astronomical significance of the megalithic structures at Zorats Karer was first explored by Armenian archaeologist Onik Khnkikyan in 1984.

[8] A year later, Armenian astrophysicist Elma Parsamyan hypothesised about the existence of an astronomical observatory at Zorats Karer (Carahunge), and analysed other megalithic sites at Metzamor and Angeghakot.

[9] An investigation by radiophysicist Paris Herouni and his research team in 1994–2001 led them to the now disputed conclusion that Carahunge is the world's oldest astronomical observatory.

In a letter to Herouni, Professor Hawkins confirmed his Armenian colleague’s similar conclusions about Zorats Karer, stating, in particular: “I admire the precise calculations you have made.

I am most impressed with the careful work you have done, and hope that the result will ultimately get recorded in literature.”[11] Zorats Karer was investigated in 2000 by archaeologists from the Institut für Vorderasiatische Archäologie, University of Munich, as part of a field survey of prehistoric sites in southern Armenia.

One is that it can be astronomically dated to the sixth millennium BCE and direct comparisons with Stonehenge, which few now believe was an observatory, are less than helpful.

The northeast avenue, which extends about 50 meters from the center, has been inconsistently associated with the summer solstice, the major northern lunistice, or the rising of Venus.

[6] Herouni had postulated that in order to use the holes in the megaliths for astronomical observations sufficiently precise to determine the date of the solstices, it would have been necessary to restrict the field of vision by inserting a narrow tube in the existing perforations.