Zorats Karer

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Zorats Karer near Sisian.
Zorats Karer near Sisian.
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Coordinates: 39.5507° N 46.0286° E

Zorats Karer (Zorac‘ K‘arer, Zorac Qarer, Zorakarer, Zorakar Armenian: Զորաց Քարեր), also known as Angelakot or Karahunj (K‘arahunǰ, Qarahunj, Karahundj, Քարահունջ), is a megalithic structure near the city of Sisian in the Syunik province of Armenia.

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[edit] History

According to scientist’s findings, a temple consisting of 40 stones built in honor of the Armenians’ main God, Ari, meaning the Sun, is situated in the central part of Carahunge. Besides the temple, it had a large and developed observatory, and also a university that makes up the temple’s wings. The structure surrounds a Bronze Age cemetery set on a natural elevation. The site was in use from the Middle Bronze Age into the Iron Age (2nd to 1st millennia BC), and contains some extraordinary chamber tombs. A wall of rocks and loam was built, of which only the vertical rocks remain standing. In the Hellenistic and Roman period, the site was probably used as a fortified place of refuge.

The site has some notability in archaeoastronomy, where it is interpreted as an "ancient observatory". Armenian physicist and archaeoastronomy enthusiast Paris Herouni dates it to the 6th millennium BC.

A similar structure is found at Metsamor.

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