Facts about Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital of Armenia. It is also the largest Armenian city. Yerevan is sometimes written as Erevan. It is situated on the Hrazdan River. Its former names include Erebuni and Erivan. It is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country. The history of Yerevan dates back to the 8th century BC, with the founding of the Urartian fortress of Erebuni in 782 BC. According to Armenian tradition, the name of Yerevan is derived from an expression exclaimed by Noah in Armenian while looking in the direction of Yerevan, after the ark had landed on Mount Ararat and after the flood waters had receded: "Yerevants!" ("it appeared!"). The more plausible theory on the origin of the name is that the city was named after the Armenian king, Yervand the Third (the Last), the last leader of the Orontid Dynasty and founder of the city of Yervandashat. Between the sixth and fourth centuries BC, Yerevan was one of the main centers of the Armenian satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire. In 585 BC, the fortress of Teishebaini (Karmir Blur), thirty miles to the north of Yerevan, was destroyed by the Scythians. Due to the absence of historical data, the timespan between fourth century BC and third century AD is known as the Yerevan Dark Ages. The first church in Yerevan, the church of St. Peter and Paul, was built in the fifth century however it collapsed in 1931. In 658 AD, Yerevan was conquered, during the height of Arab invasions. Since then the site has been strategically important as a crossroads for the caravan routes passing between Europe and India. It has been known as "Yerevan" since at least the seventh century AD. Between the ninth and eleventh centuries, Yerevan was a secure part of the Armenian Bagratuni Kingdom, before being overrun by Seljuks. The city was seized and pillaged by Tamerlane in 1387 and subsequently became an administrative center of the Ilkhanate. Due to its strategic significance, Yerevan was constantly fought over and passed back and forth between the dominion of Persia and the Ottomans. At the height of the Turkish-Persian wars, the city changed hands fourteen times between 1513 and 1737. In 1604, under the order of Shah Abbas I, tens of thousands of Armenians (including citizens of Yerevan) were deported to Persia. During the second Russian-Persian war, Yerevan was liberated, by Russian troops under Ivan Paskevich on 1 October 1827. It was formally ceded by the Persians in 1828. The first general plan of the city was made in 1854, during which time the women's colleges of St. Hripsime and St. Gayane were opened and the English Garden built. In 1874, Zacharia Gevorkian opened Yerevan's first printing house. in 1879 the first theatre, sited near the church of St. Peter and Paul, was established. Two years into the twentieth century, a railway line linked Yerevan with Alexandropol, Tiflis and Julfa. In 1902, Yerevan's first public library opened. In 1913, a telephone line with eighty subscribers became operational. Sergei Parajanov, a famous film director belongs to the city of Yerevan. |
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