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The Great Musasir Temple of Armenia
The Great Musasir Temple of Armenia
MARK A. KALUSTIAN
S A S
By Mark A. Kalustian
During the early 1850's, the British Assyrian Excavation Fund entered the field under William Kennett Loftus and many antiquities and accurate drawings of wall
sculptures were apportioned between the British Museum and the Louvre. However, a bas-relief destined for Paris forming part of an ill-started convoy of antiquities
was attacked by Arab robbers while being shipped down the Tigris River, and today lies buried somewhere in the bed of that river. Fortunately that particular basrelief was copied at its original location in the palace onto a drawing by Eugene Flandin(2) as Botta's chief artist.
During this period of Assyrian campaigns, the northern Araratian regions were governed by Sardur -and
later by his son Rusa (Hrachya, according to Movses Khorenatsi) with the capital at Toushpa (Tosp)
located near the great city and the capital of the mighty Kingdom of Ararat, Van (Biaina) on the eastern
shore of Lake Van. Sardur placed Urzana as the governor of the spiritual center of Ararat The Temple of
[K]Haldi -- Musasir Ardini.
AR AR AT
T H E T E M PLE O F M U SAS I R
By Mark A. Kalustian
We gather from the Louvre texts that in the summer of 714 BC, Sargon with a great army crossed the Kurdish mountains towards Lake Urmia, swept through the
Araratian cities in the area and then turned westward into the land of Nairi, south of Lake Van. For good reason (knowing that many of his Assyrian predecessors
were thrown back from the gates of Van), Sargon by-passed Tushpa and marched around the northern and western reaches of the lake and stealthily attacked Musasir,
throwing the entire countryside into panic and confusion. King Urzana and his retinue fled into the mountains, leaving the victorious Assyrians to overrun the city
and
capture the palace of the ruler with its store-rooms filled with immense treasure. He then entered the temple of the god Haldi (Khaldi) where even greater beauty was
found. The list of valuables has been catalogued in the Louvre text(3) and it defies imagination and comprehension. It is sufficient to state that King Rusa
had assembled the greater part of the treasures of Ararat (Urartu) in Musasir
FOUR
for safe-keeping under the care of his hand-picked ruler Urzana, to thwart the greedy appetite of the mighty Assyrian king. Indeed, the treasures of the
Egyptian Tutankhamen discovered in the 1920's pales into insignificance when compared with the fantastic wealth that Sargon carried back to Assyria to
record in text and bas-relief in the capital of Assur and the palace at Dur-Sharrukin. Fortunately, the boastful inscriptions and wall paintings of the military
monarch have preserved for us the nature of the
high culture of Ararat, which otherwise would have never seen the light of day. It has been stated that when Hrusha (Rusa) learned of the destruction and
pillaging of Musasir and the sacrilege of the Great Temple of Haldi, the grief-stricken the King and the Supreme High Priest of Ararat, committed suicide.
T H E
P L U N D E R
O F
T H E
G R A N D
T E M P L E
By Mark A. Kalustian
And now, in the year 1986 or 2,700 years later, the author of this article has the audacity to claim that
Musasir deserves the attention of the architectural world for no other reason than the preservation of the
drawing of the temple by Flandin which accompanies the dissertation. Please look at the drawing and
follow my line of reasoning. Here we see the oldest of the temples Ararat which, according to reliable
sources, was built around 825 BC in the city of Musasir, which can be located with some certainty in the
area between lakes Van and Urmia, in Historic Armenia.(4)
It depicts the pillaging of this temple erected to the warrior God Haldi by the soldiers of Sargon's army, but
our concern at this moment is not in robbery but in artistry. Notice the pitched or gabled roof of either wood
or stone, the vertical triangular end from eaves to ridge of roof with a high pediment. The portico or
facade has six columns or piers or pilasters, if you will. The effect is definitely like a Greek temple
similar to the Partheonon in Athens with which everyone is familiar. That Greek edifice was built
around the year 500 BC or 425 years later than the Armenian temple of our Araratian
forefathers. Up till now, no monument has been found in Mesopotamia similar to the Musasir temple
except in Asia Minor. In Phrygia, during the 8th to the 5th centuries, great facades were carved on rock-cut
faces representing temples for the cult of the Great Mother. These too became the prototypes for the
classical Greek temples.
T H E
G R A N D
T E M P L E
O F
M U S A S I R
NOTE THAT THE PARTHENON HAS EIGHT SUPPORTING COLUMNS IN FRONT SINCE
ALIGNMENT IS WITHIN THE SPHERICAL DOME.
BAG-ARAN
However one approaches this problem, what the Musasir monument does show is the affinity of Armenian
architecture in the ninth century BC, with the architecture of Asia Minor and of Greece - an important fact,
since Armenia at a later date was under Mesopotamian influence. This fact was attested to by K. J.
Basmadjian's(5) the editor of Panaser and a member of the Societe Asiatique in 1903. In writing to the
Society he says, "My strongest argument is the similarity of the pediment of both the Parthenon and that of
the temple of Musasir. In both cases exactly the same triangle is preserved.
G A R N I
M I T H R V M
O F
T H E
S U N
G O D
MAISON CARRE [LIT. SQUARE HOUSE] IN NIMES, SOUTHERN FRANCE. CA. 10 AD.
VIRTUALLY IDENTICAL MITHRVM AS IN GARNI. ONE OF THE DIFFERENCES
ARE THE CORINTHIAN PILLARS INSTEAD OF IONIC IN GARNI.
The oldest monument in the world having this triangular pediment is the temple of Musasir. Neither Assyria
nor Babylonia, the two great powers which have always been in touch with the Araratians, have ever had
this triangular form. From Armenia it was evidently transmitted to Phrygia and Lydia, and through these
countries it was introduced to Athens, and afterwards back to Persia... the temple was probably constructed
during the reign of Ishpuhini (828-784 BC), king of Ararat (Urartu in Assyrian inscriptions) , for this was
the first king who marched upon Musasir and conquered it "(6).
THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO AT DELPHI. BUILT USING THE SAME SACRED ARCHITECTURE
SIX COLUMNS UPHOLDING THE PEDIMENT DELTA. EIGHT COLUMNS [HIDDEN]
ON THE SIDES OF THE ENTRY GATES TO THE HOLY SANCTUM OF
VISIONARY TRANSCENDENCE.
If further proof is needed that the temple is not an isolated instance in point, then let us glance to the other
bas-relief which is plate number 114 in Volume II of Botta's monumental work. Here we also see for the
first time anywhere, the Armenian kiosk or "pleasure house" on the margin of a lake. Notice the columns or
pillars strongly resembling those of the Ionic order in Greek architecture (see above reconstruction model).
By Mark A. Kalustian
Since 1959, the Historical Society and the Department of Antiquities have conducted excavations in the
Yerznka area, west of Karin. Here at Altintepe was revealed an Araratian temple and other monuments.(7)
It is significant to point out that although only the
BELL INSCRIBED WITH THE ROYAL NAME OF KING ARGITI I [785-53 BC].
THIS CLASSICAL ARARATIAN/URARTEAN/VANIC BELL HAS A DOMED TOP
[SACRED FEMININE PRINCIPLE]...AN OCTAGONAL AND PERFORATED BODY WITH
A CENTRAL RAISED RIDGE, AND A LOOP [INFINITY] FOR SUSPENSION. TRIPLE DECKER
THAT HAS 8+8= [SACRED] 16 WINDOWS CROWNED WITH THE TIP/DOME/LOOP.
DISPLAYED IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ARTS IN NEW YORK.
MEDALLION WITH THE GOLDEN HEAD OF A BULL. THE LOOP ON TOP [O]
OVER A 'T-SHAPED' HEAD IS COMPLEMENTED WITH A DOWNWARD
POINTING TRIANGLE [IN 3 ROWS WITH 1+2+3 DOTS] ON THE FOREHEAD.
foundations of the temple are in view, this shrine to the god Haldi (Khaldi or Chalde), located in the Ararat
confederation of Haiasa, the heartland of Hai [pronounced High] forefathers, contained many treasures very
much alike those described by the bas-reliefs of the Assyrian king Sargon II.
By Mark A. Kalustian
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Botta, P.E. Monuments de Nineve. 5 volumes, Paris, 1849-1850, elephantine folio; with
illustrative line drawings by Eugene Flandin.
See plate number 141 in Volume 11 above or illustration accompanying this essay.
Thureau-Dangin, F. Une Relation de la Huitieme Campagne de Sargon. Paris, 1912, page 65.
Belck, W. Zeitschrift fur Ethnographie. Berlin, 1899, p. 103.
Basmadjian was a noted editor and writer of literary and scientific articles relating to Armenia;
residing in Paris. 6. Journal of the Royal Geographic Society for 1905, pages 362-363.
6.
Archaeology. October 1969, Vol. 22, No. 4; Urartu and Altintepe, by Tahsin Ozguc, pp. 256-263,
with 10 illustrations.
7. The Armenian Review. June 1980, pp. 214-215 with illustration. An Armenian Cylinder, by Mark
A. Kalustian.
8. Babelon, Ernest. Manual of Oriental Antiquities. New York, 1889, pp. 76-77, with illustrations.
9. Piotrovskii, B.B. Urartu: The Kingdom of Van and Its Arts. New York 1967, pp. 6-11, with
illustration.
10. Olmstead, Albert T. Western Asia in the Days of Sargon, Assyria. Lancaster, PA, 1908, vii + 193
pp., Chapter V: The Armenian Wars, pp. 103-116.
11. Olmstead, A.T. History of Assyria. New York, 1923 xxix+695 pp., figures 101, 102, 115 and 116.
The title under fig. 101 reads: Plunder of the "Greek" temple of Musasir!