Armenia, Armenia

Country in West Asia

About Armenia

Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to the south. Yerevan is the capital, largest city and financial center.

Etymology

The original native Armenian name for the country was Հայք (Hayk') after the legendary founder Hayk Nahapet; however, it is currently rarely used. The contemporary name Հայաստան (Hayastan) became popular in the Middle Ages by addition of the Persian suffix -stan (place). However the origins of the name Hayastan trace back to much earlier dates and were first attested in c. 5th century in the works of Agathangelos, Faustus of Byzantium, Ghazar Parpetsi, Koryun, and Sebeos. The name has traditionally been derived from Hayk (Հայկ), the legendary patriarch of the Armenians and a great-great-grandson of Noah, who, according to the 5th-century AD author Movsis Khorenatsi, defeated the Babylonian king Bel in 2492 BC and established his nation in the Ararat region. Further origin of the name is uncertain. …

History

The first human traces are supported by the presence of Acheulean tools, generally close to the obsidian outcrops more than 1 million years ago. The most recent and important excavation is at the Nor Geghi 1 Stone Age site in the Hrazdan river valley. Thousands of 325,000 year-old artifacts may indicate that this stage of human technological innovation occurred intermittently throughout the Old World, rather than spreading from a single point of origin (usually hypothesized to be Africa), as was previously thought. Many early Bronze Age settlements were built in Armenia (Valley of Ararat, Shengavit, Harich, Karaz, Amiranisgora, Margahovit, Garni, etc.). One of the important sites of the Early Bronze Age is Shengavit settlement. It was located on the site of today's capital of Armenia, Yerevan. Armenia lies in the highlands surrounding the mountains of Ararat. …

Geography

Armenia is a landlocked country in the geopolitical Transcaucasus (South Caucasus) region, that is located in the Southern Caucasus Mountains and their lowlands between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, and northeast of the Armenian Highlands. Armenia is widely accepted as part of West Asia geographically, although other definitions place it either fully in Europe or across Europe and Asia. Located on the Armenian Highlands, it is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia to the north, the Lachin corridor which is a part of Lachin District that is under the control of a Russian peacekeeping force and Azerbaijan proper to the east, and Iran and Azerbaijan's exclave of Nakhchivan to the south. Armenia lies between latitudes 38° and 42° N, and meridians 43° and 47° E. It contains two terrestrial ecoregions: Caucasus mixed forests and Eastern Anatolian montane steppe. …

Content from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA. Read the full article →

Culture

Armenian architecture, as it originates in an earthquake-prone region, tends to be built with this hazard in mind. Armenian buildings tend to be rather low-slung and thick-walled in design. Armenia has abundant resources of stone, and relatively few forests, so stone was nearly always used throughout for large buildings. Small buildings and most residential buildings were normally constructed of lighter materials, and hardly any early examples survive, as at the abandoned medieval capital of Ani. The duduk, dhol, zurna, and kanun are common instruments in Armenian folk music. The 18th century bard Sayat Nova influenced the development of Armenian folk music. Armenian chant is a common form of religious music in Armenia. …

Economy

The economy relies heavily on investment and support from Armenians abroad. Before independence, Armenia's economy was largely industry-based – chemicals, electronics, machinery, processed food, synthetic rubber, and textile – and highly dependent on outside resources. The republic had developed a modern industrial sector, supplying machine tools, textiles, and other manufactured goods to sister republics in exchange for raw materials and energy. Agriculture accounted for less than 20% of both net material product and total employment before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. After independence, the importance of agriculture in the economy increased markedly, its share at the end of the 1990s rising to more than 30% of GDP and more than 40% of total employment. …

Demographics

Armenia has a population of 3,081,100 as of 2025. It is the third most densely populated of the former Soviet republics. The country has faced population decline since the breakup of the USSR due to high levels of emigration; the population peaked at 3.6 million in 1991. However, since 2012, the emigration rate has slowed, and some population growth has been observed. Armenia has a relatively large external diaspora—8 million by some estimates, greatly exceeding the 3 million people in Armenia itself—which is dispersed across the globe. The largest Armenian communities outside of Armenia are in Russia (1.1 million–2.9 million), the United States (1 million–1.5 million), and France (250,000–750,000); sizable numbers are also found in Georgia, Syria, Lebanon, Australia, Canada, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Poland, Ukraine, and Brazil. …

Armenia

Top travelers for this city

Scarcity