Urartu

Urartu was an Iron Age kingdom centred on the Armenian highlands between Lake Van, Lake Urmia and Lake Sevan, in territory that now belongs to Turkey, Armenia, Iran and Iraq. Its kings called their realm Biainili and wrote in Urartian, a language of the Hurro-Urartian family, using cuneiform inscriptions carved on cliffs, stelae and temple walls. The kingdom emerged in the mid-ninth century BC, when Assyrian sources name Arame and his successors, and it became the strongest rival of Assyria in the eighth and seventh centuries. Rulers such as Sarduri I, Ishpuini, Menua and Argishti I built fortresses, canals and cities, above all Tushpa on the shore of Lake Van. Urartian metalwork, bronze shields and cauldrons were prized far beyond its borders. Constant warfare with Assyria, Cimmerian and Scythian incursions and internal strain weakened the state, and it was destroyed in the early sixth century BC, either by the Medes or by Cyrus the Great. Its fortresses and irrigation works left a deep mark on later Armenian culture.