Aghtsk - Arshakuni Burial Crypt

Legend
According to legend and the 5th c historian Pavstos Biusand, the troops of the Sassanid king Shapuh II destroyed the Arshakuni ancestral burial place at Ani-Kamah and “captured the Arshakuni Kings’ remains, failing only to open the burial vault of King Sanatruk which was an enormous and incredibly strong and ingeniously built structure.”
The remains of the other kings were carried off to Persia, in a bid to dispirit the Armenians and place a hex on their fortunes. The Sparapet Vasak Mamikonian (ca. mid 4th c), after defeating the Persians in battle, retook the bones and carried them back to Armenia to the newly built mausoleum church at Aghstk, where they were buried (according to one legend pagan separated from Christian; according to another the bones were mixed together, so the builders could not separate them between Christian and pagan and had to bury them together, incorporating pagan symbols with Christian in the decor) in the lower chamber, thus restoring the power of the kingdom. The mausoleum continued to be used to inter Armenia’s kings until the 5th c then the line of kings ended. The mausoleum survived for some time, falling to invasions and earthquakes long past the time of the Arshakunis. A later historian, Movses Khorenatsi, wrote that a decision was finally made to inter them in the saint’s vault at Vagharshapat (Echmiadzin).”

Burial crypt
The burial crypt, built from stone, once had a second floor, of which only the cruciform underground section has survived. 
The interior boasts horseshoe arches. The outer walls on either side of the western entry and the exterior of the rectangular niches feature carvings depicting biblical scenes (Daniel in the Lion's Den), a motif of rams, stylized birds, crosses in a circle and other images.
The 1970s excavations uncovered the ruins of a 4th century three-nave basilica adjoining the crypt on the north.  It is almost a square hall with two pairs of rectangular pylons (converted into T-shaped and cruciform in the 5th-6th cc.). On the south of the horseshoe shaped apse there is a rectangular room.
Text is provided by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia.