Hotels in Eriwan Eriwan Yerevan is one of the oldest cities in the world. In 782 B.C. the Urartian king Argishti the First founded Erebuni, the military and administrative centre of the state of Urartu, on the place of the present-day Yerevan. The ruins of the fortress Erebuni are in the south-eastern part of today's Yerevan, on the Arin-Berd hill. For the first time Yerevan as the capital of the Ararat country was mentioned by some chronicles in the 14th century when it became a vice-regency centre. After the unification of Eastern Armenia with Russia in 1828 Yerevan became the centre of the Yerevan province. The city kept on growing and on the turn of the century it occupied a territory of some 102 square kilometres with a population of 30000. Yerevan is situated in the north-eastern part of the Ararat Valley and has a population of more than a million and a quarter. The major places to see are the National Art Gallery and the Museum of Armenian History located on the Republic Square. Matenadaran is the treasury of Medieval Armenian culture. It has a collection of over 16000 manuscripts. There are 16 churches in Yerevan. The Armenian capital has celebrated its 2780th anniversary in 1999. |