Armazi

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Armazi (Georgian: არმაზი) was the chief deity in the ancient Georgian pagan pantheon.

Armazi was worshipped from the fourth century BC to the fourth century AD.

According to Georgian chronicles, one representation of Armazi was as the figure of a soldier, made from gold, 30m in height, with green eyes and a sword in its right hand. The Georgian records accurately describe the crowded pagan festival in Mtskheta, with the king himself as a participant.

When Saint Nino, Christianiser of Georgia, entered Mtskheta, the capital city of the Kartli kingdom (Caucasian Iberia), she saw the annual celebration the festival of Armazi (perhaps held around August). It is said that as she began praying, by the grace of the Christian God the idol was burnt by lightning.

In the sixth to seventh centuries AD Jvari Monastery was built at Armazi.