Armenia is located in the highlands around the Biblical Mountains. The original Armenian name for the country was Hek, later Heystan translated as the land of Haik and included the name of the ancient Mesopotamian god Haya and the Persian suffix –stan. Hayak (the mythical ruler of Armenia) had a historical enemy, Hayastan Bel. The name Armenia was given to the country by the surrounding states and is traditionally derived from Armenak or Aram. In the Bronze Age, several kingdoms flourished in the region of Greater Armenia, including the Hittite Empire, the Mitanni called southwestern historical Armenia, and Hayasa-Aziz.
| Armenia |
| administrative department |
| Argatsotan, Ararat, Armavir, Lori, Chirac, Syunik, Taush, Vyots Dazar, Yerevan |
| Main language – Armenian |
| President of this country – Armen Sarkeesian |
| Prime Minister – Nicole Pashinyan |
| Area – 29,743 square kilometer |
| Population – 2,951,745 |
| Currency Name – Dram (֏) (AMD) |
Largest city – Yerevan
Soon Hayasa-Azi was followed by the Nair and Urtaru states, which successfully established their sovereignty over the Armenian Highland. Each of the above countries and tribes took part in the ethnography of the Armenian people. Armenia’s modern capital, Yerevan, is located at the western end of the Ararat plain by King Argysti I in the 8th century BC, with the establishment of the fortress of Erebuni in 782 BC. Erebuni “has been built into a great administrative and religious centre, described as a purely imperial capital.
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Capital of this country – Yerevan
The Iron Age kingdom of Urartu was replaced by the Ostrid dynasty. Following Persian and subsequent Macedonian rule, the Artaxidian dynasty gave rise to the Kingdom of Armenia in 190 BC, which reached the peak of its influence under Tigranes II before coming under Roman rule. In 301, Arsacid Armenia was the first sovereign nation to accept Christianity as the state religion. The Armenians later fell under Byzantine, Sassanid Persian and Islamic hegemony, but restored their independence with the Bagratid dynasty of Armenia. After the fall of the kingdom in AD 1045 and the subsequent Seljuk conquest of Armenia in 1064, the Armenians established a kingdom in Cilicia, where they long maintained their sovereignty until 1375.
In the early 16th century, Greater Armenia came under Safavid Persian rule; However, for centuries Eastern Armenia remained under Persian rule, while Western Armenia fell under Ottoman rule. By the 19th century, Eastern Armenia had been conquered by Russia and Greater Armenia was divided between the Ottoman and Russian Empires. Armenians suffered in the genocide inflicted on them by Turkey’s Ottoman government in the early 20th century, which killed 1.5 million Armenians and scattered many more around the world through Syria and Lebanon. Armenia, since then over most of eastern Armenia, gained independence in 1918, with the establishment of the first Republic of Armenia.
Armenia prehistoric era
Stone tools dating back 325,000 years have been found in Armenia which indicates the presence of early humans at this time. Excavations in the Yerevan 1 cave in the 1960s uncovered evidence of ancient human habitation, including the remains of a 48,000-year-old heart, and fragments of a human cranium and teeth of a similar age.
The Armenian Highland shows traces of settlement from the Neolithic Age. Archaeological surveys in 2010 and 2011 have discovered the world’s earliest known leather shoes, straw skirts and wine-making facilities (4,000 BC) in the Arni-1 cave complex. The Shuleveri-Shomu culture of the central Transcaucasus region is one of the earliest known prehistoric cultures in the region, carbon-dated to 6000–4000 BC.
