Many might be surprised to learn that the Garni Temple, a must stop for tourists visiting Armenia, is not registered as a UNESCO world heritage site.

While considered the best-known structure and symbol of pre-Christian Armenia, the site has faced several challenges in recent years, most notably the unfulfilled promises of successive Armenian governments to implement needed repair and restoration work.

The Armenian Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport today announced that it plans to file an application with UNESCO to get the site and the Symphony of Stones natural monument on the organization’s provisional World Heritage list.

UNESCO, recently, approved Armenia’s application to include the Tirinkatar archeological site and the country’s “vishap” (Armenian for “dragon”) stone monuments on the provisional World Heritage list.

Hetq, in 2022, wrote that for the past twenty years water leaking from the roof and walls of the 3rd century AD Royal Bathhouse at the Garni Complex had damaged the famed mosaic underneath.

Data published by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) shows that, in 2019, 1.894 million tourists visited Armenia. Garni is at the top of their list of sites to visit.

The coronavirus and the 2020 Artsakh war decreased that number by 70% in 2020 and by 65% in 2021. Garni did not have a shortage of visitors since domestic tourism grew instead.

In 2019, foreigners visiting Garni had to pay a 1,500-dram entrance fee. Armenian citizens had to pay 750 drams.  for the citizens of the Republic of Armenia. Thus, according to the crudest calculation, Garni enjoyed an annual income of 3 billion drams. In addition, private events provide a lucrative income, some of which caused a stir, such as in 2021 when the INGO insurance company staged a wedding at the site.

Nevertheless, successive Armenian governments have claimed that a lack of funds has prevented any needed repair and restoration.

In 2011, UNESCO awarded the Garni site the Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes.    The award came with a US$15,000 prize. 

Three years later, the “Service for the Protection of Historical Environment and Cultural Museum Reservations, NCSO” (non-commercial state organization) attached to the Ministry of Culture proposed building a café at the site to provide funds for restoration work.

The Symphony of Stones (towering cliff walls of well-preserved basalt columns) in the nearby Garni Gorge had been turned into a veritable stone quarry for years.

(The cathedral and churches of Etchmiadzin, the Zvartnots archeological site., the monasteries of Haghpat and Sanahin, and the Geghard Monastery and Upper Azat Valley are registered in the UNESCO World Heritage List.)