340 
ANTIQUITY OF THE RUINS. 
The gate and walls of the fort also denoted an origin of much 
greater antiquity than the generality of Armenian ruins; and from 
the solidity of their masonry, the size, fitness,- and good work¬ 
manship of their masses, were evidently coeval with the Ionic 
building. 
In the country itself, almost all antiquity is wrapt up in fable and 
ignorance. Moses of Chorene, however, gives an account of Gerni, 
and particularly of the castle, and the Ionic building above mentioned. 
In lib. 1. chap. xi. p. 34. he wishes us to believe that Gelamius, the 
ninth in succession from Japhet, first built it, and gave it his name, 
but that it was afterwards named Garni, from his nephew Garnicus. 
He says, too, that it was built on the banks of the Rhazdanus; it must, 
therefore, be the Gerni of the present day. At lib. II. chap. Ixxxvii. 
p. 224. it is remarked, “ At this time, Tiridates finished the building of 
