Artashat

Artashat (Armenian Արտաշատ ) is the capital of the central Armenian Ararat province about 20 kilometers south of the capital Yerevan, which is as a trading center in the midst of intensive agriculture Araratebene important. The name of the city, founded in 1828 is derived from the ancient capital Artashat or Artaxata, those ruins, eight kilometers south of the monastery choir Virap are.

Location

Artashat lies on 831 meters altitude in the alluvial valley of the Aras, which marks the border with Turkey. Immediately across the border rises the 5137 meter high Mount Ararat, from which the province and the crisscrossed by irrigation canals level have taken the name to the city. The entire densely populated level in the area of the city is almost entirely converted either into agricultural land or built over with villages and farmsteads. Major crops include fruit trees, especially apricots and peaches, grapes, vegetables and tobacco. In the east the Araratebene goes into low hills, the foothills of up to 3597 meters high mountain range are Geghama ( Geghama instructive ). On the hills were preserved forests, which are protected as Chosrau National Park. They are named after the Arsacid ruler Khosrow II Kodak ( Khosrow II of the Small, reg. 330-338 ), who moved further east in the year 335 his capital from the ancient Artashat after Dvin, where he had to create a forest as a royal hunting ground.

Artashat is from Yerevan, 29 km to the leading in the south of the country, developed in this area and the M2 motorway. The only town is halfway Masis ( 14 kilometers north Artashat ). The nearest town to the south, Ararat, is seven miles from the M2. The town center is half a mile east of the highway exit to the parallel street H8. From Schahumian, the southern neighbor of Artashat, villages lined up along this parallel road north to Marmara 's at the height of the highway exit to Masis, which are almost completely grown together. The first two villages north of this chain are Mrgavan and Berka Nusch. In Berka Nusch a side road ( H9 ) branches off to the east to the archaeological site of Dvin. Verin Artashat ( 4462 inhabitants) is called an adjoining Dvin village. Some villages were inhabited until their forced removal in 1950 during the Soviet domination of Azerbaijanis. They were then taken over by Armenians.

Cityscape

After the last Russo- Persian War 1826-1828, which was conducted by the Armenian areas and ended with a Persian defeat, Armenians and Assyrians from Iran were forced to flee. At the site of an older village, some of them founded about 1828 a settlement. The present city is the result of planning from the Soviet era. In January 2008, lived according to official statistics 25 308 inhabitants in Artashat.

The central axis across the city is the H8. It forms about half a kilometer in length, the main shopping street with mostly small grocery stores in two -storey houses. At the central square with administrative buildings and a large hotel with a passing trees Park is affiliated with, which was established in 2004. The four - to five -storey apartment block in the city center soft off the main roads rural settlement forms with single family homes and home gardens. In the area between the H8 and the highway some industries have settled outside the city center, among other things manufactures a porcelain factory, the tiles. In the city or in the vicinity of some companies process the crop grown on the surrounding fields grapes into wine and brandy (wine: Artashat Winery, Brandy: Brandy Factory Proshyan, wine and brandy: Great Valley). There is a university, a music school, a cultural center and a theater.