Zvartnots Temple

One of the most imposing  monuments of Armenian architecture is an ancient temple Zvartnots, or as it is also commonly called the temple of the Heavenly Angels. It is located not far from Yerevan, and is famous for its quaint ornamentation framing eaves. The walls of the temple are decorated with grape vines, branches of pomegranate, the finest geometric ornaments, decorative elements - palmettes and acanthus. Columns are decorated with carved capitals and columns, set next to the piers, the main pillars of the temple, were crowned with huge stone images of eagles - those birds symbolized the ascension of the temple. The evidence of splendid decoration is the altar of the remnants of frescoes, smalt pieces for mosaic, slate and carved stones discovered during the excavations. Mosaic decorated the walls of the temple, in particular, the researchers were able to trace the presence of the altar wall of a large mosaic picture. Zvartnots stood for more than three hundred years, and in about 930 it was destroyed by an earthquake. As the researchers found, the architect, who build the house, did not manage to transfer the gravity of the upper tiers of four high-power pylon, which served as the main pillars, and as a result, the part the pressure fell on the arches and vaults of the church. Exactly this was the weak point of the temple and earthquake tore it. In 2000 the ruins of the temple and the archaeological area around it are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.