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Archaeological site · Erebuni district, Yerevan, Yerevan

Erebuni Fortress

Էրեբունի · Arin Berd · Erebuni

The hilltop citadel of Arin Berd in south-east Yerevan, founded in 782 BC by the Urartian king Argishti I, whose cuneiform foundation inscription records the name from which Yerevan's own derives.

Where it is

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Open Erebuni Fortress on the XTOUR map. Directions are available there.

40.1407, 44.5380

Why go

On the hill you walk among partly reconstructed ramparts, a palace complex with a columned hall and the temple of the god Khaldi, with fragments of the original wall paintings. The Erebuni Museum at the foot of the hill, founded in 1968 for the city's 2,750th anniversary, displays the finds, among them cuneiform inscriptions, weapons, seals and silver drinking vessels. See the museum first and the ruins make far more sense. Erebuni and Karmir Blur appear together on Armenia's tentative list for World Heritage as the Urartian heritage of Yerevan.

Base yourself nearby

City

Yerevan

Yerevan is Armenia's capital and the base for almost every trip to the country: a low-rise city built largely from pink volcanic tuff, with a dense cafe and dining culture, serious museums and manuscript collections, Soviet-modernist architecture, and monasteries, wine country and Lake Sevan all within a day's return drive.

Near Erebuni Fortress