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When Argishti I, King of the Urartu, had his war captives build the fortress of Erebuni to defend the newly-conquered Ararat plain, he also had the following text inscribed on a tablet:

For the God Khaldi, the lord Argishti, son of Menua, built this temple and this mighty fortress. I proclaimed it Irbuni for the glory of the countries of Biai and for holding the Lului countries in awe. By the greatness of God Khaldi, this is Argishti, son of Menua, the mighty king, the king of the countries of Biai, ruler of the city of Tushpa

2788 years later, the fortress and the city that spread from it still endure, as does the tablet itself.

Vahan: Look at the contrast here! A slab of modern concrete on top of ancient cuneiform...

Vahan: The fortress and temple were built from tuff, which is a relatively soft rock, but the cuneiform was hammered into basalt - which is much tougher. I presume this was done deliberately - so that the message would survive and outlive the buildings themselves. There are cuneiform inscriptions also on the stone at the base of the pillars - the cuneiform sanctified the foundations of the palace. This shows that the Armenian obsession with the spiritual, sacred qualities of stone goes way back...

Armeniapedia: The temple was richly ornamented. Its walls were painted with colorful representations of human figures and gods, with geometrical and floral ornaments. The composition of the murals was two dimensional and based on the alternation of the horizontal strips of the ornament with the figures of animals and people. Of special interest is the representation of god Khaldi standing on a lion, with a warder in his left hand and with a horned tiara on his head; it is similar to the bas-relief representation of god Teisheba in Adildzhevaz and many others known in the art of Urartu and that of the ancient East.

_{View of Yerevan from Erebuni}

Vahan: Even though its one of the oldest cities in the world, Erebuni is not protected or on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites. There's just a small museum there. You can walk around and touch anything. There's graffiti on some of the frescos, there's litter all around. But maybe it's better like this: Erebuni just survives. It has survived invasion, occupation, earthquakes. It's like a natural feature of the landscape. Argishti said the city had to be there, and so it is.

Vahan: Originally these sphinxes - there's one male and one female - stood outside the palace to greet guests. They're made from bronze.

_{A modern sculpture of Argishti, Levon Tokmadjian}

All photos © Vahan Bego 2006

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In 786 B.C. after the succession of Argishti I to the throne, the wars between Urartu and a revived Assyria accelerated. Argishti I added the enormous Ararat plain to Urartu's territory which then extended as far north as the lakes of Sevan and Dhaldyr. Assyria, ever mindful of the nomadic threat from its north, had been in a transitory period of eclipse during the time of Urartu's expansion. By 786 B.C. it was beginning to recover and wanted direct access the rich mining resources on the Armenian Plateau. The Assyrians may have had some initial success.

The subsequent attacks of Shalmaneser IV against Urartu, however, were a tactical error. Argishti gained an advantage over the Assyrian forces who had crossed his southern border. He then outflanked the Assyrians and attacked their trade routes. His army conquered the countries of Melitanuh and Komaguenuh and invaded Babylon which was in Assyrian possession. The Urartians pentrated as far south as the Diala River. Argishti managed to check Assyria's northern expansion for half a century. The Assyrian commander Turtan Shamsheluh, who suffered his only defeats at the hands of Argishti described him as one "…whose name is as terrible as a dreadful storm, whose might is immeasurable, who cannot be compared with any one of the previous kings…."

Argishti I also used the fortress at Menuakhnili as a base to cross the Arax River and penetrate into the Ararat plain. Aided by his son, Sardur, the Urartians managed to expand the empire as far as the shores of the Gegham Sea (Lake Sevan) and northward between the Black and Caspian Sea. Argishti also continued the building of key outposts, including Erebuni,

Erebuni had been established as a military fortress on the edge of the edge of the Ararat Valley to serve as a base for the Urartian advance into the Gegham Sea area, a mountainous region rich with cattle, and occupied by tribes with Hurrian roots. Within he citadel of Erebuni Argishti had a royal palace, a temple, and storerooms built by the 6,600 war captives he had settled in his new city. Inscriptions were set on tablets "to declare the might of the land of Biaini and hold her enemies in awe". [from Uratian History]

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Urartu was one of several first millennium B.C. states that came into existence and prominence in Anatolia (modern Turkey) after the destruction of the Hittite state around 1200 B.C. (others include Phrygia, Tabal, and Lydia). These states were kingdoms, each with its own language, ethnicity, religion, and characteristic material culture. In their inscriptions, the Assyrians of Mesopotamia refer to the Urartians as their northern enemies from the eleventh to the seventh centuries B.C. However, the earliest known Urartian written document, a rock inscription at Van (ancient Tushpa), records the earliest reference to the state. There it says that Urartu was ruled by a king named Sarduri (r. ca. 840–830 B.C.), and mentions a male deity, Haldi, the supreme god throughout Urartian history. Urartu was centered in eastern Anatolia, around Lake Van; the capital, Tushpa, was located on the eastern shore of the lake, situated on a high and elongated rock outcrop. In the late ninth century B.C., the state expanded north into the Caucasus, where an Urartian presence was established at sites like Karmir Blur and Armavir. The Urartians also moved east across the formidable Zagros Mountains into northwestern Iran, where many rock-cut texts and various sites—such as Hasanlu, Agrab Tepe, and Bastam—inform us of their local conquests and achievements.[from metmuseum]

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Cuneiform Script

Urartian Language

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