The “Symphony of Rocks,” a rocky mountain in Armenia, is made up of numerous stone columns.

Located near the capital Armenia, this amazing natural formation seems as if the gods wanted to play music.

Α 23 km east of Erevan, αrmenia, just below the town of the same name, is the impressive garni gorge, with well -preserved basalto columns cliffs sculpted by the Goght river on its sides. This part of the gorge is known as the “symphony of the stones”, and it is easy to see why. The columns suspended against gravity resemble an organ, which explains why the natural monument is also called “Basalt organ.” The soundtrack puts the river that runs through the gorge and fills the splendor of the stone with the water symphony.

The organ is formed by huge symmetric columns of hexagonal and pentagonal basalt (almost 50 meters high), which seem handmade by their extraordinary symmetry. These amazing rock formations were formed under conditions of high pressure due to the cooling and crystallization of volcanic lava.

The complex topography of αrmenia was molded by a geological agitation that pushed up the earth’s crust to form the Armenian plateau 25 million years ago. It is not yet known with certainty as the Columnar Board was formed, but it is generally explained by analogy with mud cracks resulting from the contract on the surface of the dry mud. It is presumed that polygonal cracks in the basalt are due to the contraction during cooling, which acts towards the creation of a series of equally spaced cooling centers. It is believed that a tension crack between two centers is formed and, since each center is surrounded by many others, a multiple sides polygonal system is formed, which divides the rock into approximately uniform polygonal blocks. Α Measure that advances inland cooling, cracks spread in straight angle with respect to the cooling surface.

Garni Gorge and the Basalto columns formations “Symphony of the stones” throughout the cliff. Image credit: Diego Delso

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