Armenian Highlands

Armenian Highlands
The Armenian Mountain Range near the Turkey-Iran border
Country	Armenia Azerbaijan Georgia Iran Turkey
Region	West Asia
Highest point	Mount Ararat
- elevation	5,137 m (16,854 ft)
- coordinates
Area	400,000 km2 (154,441 sq mi)
Satellite image

Political map of the region, CIA, 2002

The natural borders of the Armenian plateau according to H. F. B. Lynch, 1901

The Armenian Highlands (Armenian: Հայկական լեռնաշխարհ, Haykakan leṙnašxarh; also known as the Armenian Upland, Armenian plateau, Armenian tableland, or simply Armenia) is the central-most and highest of three land-locked plateaus that together form the northern sector of the Middle East. To its west is the Anatolian plateau which rises slowly from the lowland coast of the Aegean Sea and converges with the Armenian Highlands to the east of Cappadocia. To its southeast is the Iranian plateau, where the elevation drops rapidly by about to 1,500 metres (5,000 ft) above sea level. The Caucasus extends to the northeast of the Armenian Highlands. To the southwest of the Armenian Highlands is Upper Mesopotamia.

During Antiquity, it was known as Armenia Major, a central region to the history of Armenians, and one of the four geo-political regions associated with Armenians, the other three being Armenia Minor, Cilicia and Commagene. During the Middle Ages, Turkmens settled in large numbers in the Armenian Highlands.

The region was historically mainly inhabited by Armenians, and minorities of Georgians and Assyrians. The Christian population of the Western half of the region was exterminated during the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and to a smaller scale the Assyrian Genocide.

Today, the region is mainly inhabited by Armenians, Kurds, Azerbaijanis, Turks, and Georgians.

Geography

Its total area is about 400,000 km². Historically, the Armenian Highlands has been the scene of great volcanic activity. Geologically recent volcanism on the area has resulted in large volcanic formations and a series of massifs and tectonic movement has formed the three largest lakes in the Highland, Lake Sevan, Lake Van and Lake Urmia. The Armenian Highlands is rich in water resources.

The Armenian Highlands

Most of the Armenian Highlands is in eastern Turkey, and also includes northwestern Iran, all of Armenia, southern Georgia, and western Azerbaijan. Its northeastern parts are also known as Lesser Caucasus, which is a center of Armenian culture.

History

Main articles: Prehistoric Armenia, History of Armenia, and History of Anatolia

From 4000 to 1000 BC, tools and trinkets of copper, bronze and iron were commonly produced in this region and traded in neighboring lands where those metals were less abundant. It is also traditionally believed to be one of the possible locations of the Garden of Eden. The Armenian Plateau has been called the "epicenter of the Iron Age", since it appears to be the location of the first appearance of Iron Age metallurgy in the late 2nd millennium BC. In the Early Iron Age, the Kingdom of Van controlled much of the region, until it was overthrown by the Medes and Orontid dynasty.

In Gilgamesh, the land of Aratta is placed in a geographic space that could be describing the Armenian plateau.

Throughout Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages, during various centuries, the Armenian Highlands was a heavily contested territory of the Iranian Parthian Empire, Sassanid Persian Empire, Byzantine Empire, and the Arab Caliphate. From the early modern era and on, the region came directly under Safavid Iranian rule. Heavily contested for centuries between the Iranian Safavids and its vying arch rival the Ottoman Empire with numerous wars raging over the region, large parts of the Highlands comprising Western Armenia were finally conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the first half of the 17th century following the Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–39) and the outcoming Treaty of Zuhab, while Eastern Armenia, forming another major part of the Highlands, stayed in Iranian hands up to the course of the 19th century, when it was ceded to Imperial Russia. During the later first half of the 19th century, the Ottoman held parts of the Armenian Highlands comprising Western Armenia now formed the boundary of the Ottoman sphere of influence and the Russian sphere of influence, the latter who had just recently completed its conquest of the Caucasus and Eastern Armenia at the expense of its suzerain, Qajar Iran, in about 4 major wars spanning more than two centuries.

According to Richard Hovannisian, the Armenian Genocide was the "physical elimination of the Armenian people and most of the evidence of their ever having lived on the great highland called the Armenian Plateau, to which the perpetrator side soon assigned the new name of Eastern Anatolia". Since the Armenian Genocide and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, it has been the boundary region of Turkey, Iran and the Soviet Union and, since the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, Armenia, and parts of Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Flora and fauna

The apricot was known by the Romans as the prunus armenicus (the Armenian plum) and was brought to Europe from the Armenian plateau.

Notable peaks

Mount Artos, Lake Van from Akhtamar Island

Rank	Mountain	Prominence	Location
1	Mount Ararat	5,137 m	Ağrı Province
2	Mount Aragats	4,095 m	Aragatsotn Province
3	Mount Süphan	4,058 m	Bitlis Province
4	Mount Kapudzhukh	3,906 m	Syunik Province / Ordubad
5	Mount Azhdahak	3,597 m	Gegharkunik Province
6	Mount Kezelboghaz	3,594 m	Syunik Province
7	Mount Artos	3,515 m	Van Province

See also

• History of Armenia
• Geography of Armenia