Travel – Armenia – Erebuni and other Yerevan sights

This is an excerpt from my book Travels through History : Armenia and Georgia currently available at a discount.

Ancient Erebuni fortress sits high on a hill overlooking modern Yerevan. This site was built in 782BC by king Argishti I of Urartu to house a garrison of 6,600 soldiers, the first settlement on this side of the Arax river, so in some ways Erebuni was the precursor of Yerevan. Erebuni was only used for around a hundred years before another king of Urartu, Rusa II, chose a different site to house his army. 

Urartu is the ancient kingdom of Armenia and North Mesopotamia centred about Lake Van in eastern Turkey. Urartu flourished from the 13th cent. to the 7th cent. B.C., but was most powerful in the 8th cent. B.C. The Urartians constantly fought with various Assyrian kings and according to the Erebuni museum Sargon II was responsible for the fall of Erebuni. However, the downfall of the kingdom of Urartu is normally attributed to repeated invasions by the Cimmerians, Scythians, and Medes. 

Erebuni is a large site on a hill and I find it difficult to believe, but people in the area more or less forgot about its existence, indeed a monastery called Arin Berd was even built on top of the former fortress. It was only when the monastery site was explored in 1950 that Erebuni was rediscovered. The museum houses some of the stellar finds at the site, including some solid silver rhytons (drinking cups) dating from the 5th and 7th centuries BC and the helmet of King Sarduri II. 

I found the site of Erebuni to be rather difficult to fathom out, especially where everything was in relation to each other. There was very little indication of which feature was where and there’s no guiding landmark, such as a tower, to help. This means that I probably visited the Temple of Khaldi, the pillared courtyard, and the main reception hall, I just didn’t realise where I was. I did walk around the outer walls of the fortress, which are set out in roughly triangular shape, and they are at least six feet high all the way around. The views of Yerevan are good, although a heat haze prevented me from clearly seeing Mt Ararat.   

Back down in Yerevan, the National Gallery, the State History museum, and the Hotel Armenia can all be found around Republic Square along with government buildings, a post office, and a bookshop called Noah’s Ark. There’s also supposed to be a nuclear bunker under the square, but I am not sure whether it’s open to visitors. Head south-east and then south out of Republic Square, along Tigran Mets avenue, to find the cathedral. There’s a horrid building on one side of the street, which houses the Ararat clothing bazaar, and then opposite is the broad sweep of stairs leading to the cathedral of St Gregory the Illuminator.