Yerevan

Yerevan stands beside the Hrazdan, at the edge of the Ararat plain beneath the Armenian highlands. Its long history reaches back to the Urartian fortress of Erebuni, founded in 782 BC. In later centuries the city became an important centre of trade and administration on the routes between the Caucasus and Iran, with Armenian churches, mosques, gardens and markets reflecting the different communities who made their homes within its quarters.

Yerevan's position made it a prize in the wars between the Ottoman and Safavid empires. The Ottomans strengthened its fortress in 1583; Shah Abbas recovered it after a long siege in 1604 and deported many Armenians from the region to Iran. The earthquake of 1679 devastated the city and its fortress, which was subsequently rebuilt. Under Persian rule Yerevan became the seat of a khan, and in the eighteenth century Husayn Ali Khan built the Blue Mosque, one of its most prominent surviving monuments.

Russian armies besieged the fortress during successive wars with Persia. General Paskevich captured it in 1827, and the Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828 ceded the khanates of Erivan and Nakhchivan to Russia. The change of rule was followed by the arrival of Armenian migrants from Iran and Ottoman territories, adding new inhabitants to a city shaped by centuries of conflict and movement.