Erebuni Fortress and Museum

Erebuni Fortress stands on the hill of Arin Berd in the Erebuni district of southern Yerevan, Armenia, and marks the traditional founding of the city. The fortress was established in 782 BC by the Urartian king Argishti I, and Yerevan's claim to be among the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities rests on this date. Excavations in the twentieth century uncovered the foundations of a palace, a temple and storerooms, along with cuneiform inscriptions on the walls, and parts of the site have been reconstructed with mud-brick and painted decorations. The Erebuni Museum at 38 Aivazovsky Street at the foot of the hill displays the finds, including pottery, bronze objects, weapons, jewellery and cuneiform tablets, and tells the story of the Urartian kingdom and the early history of the Armenian highlands. Visitors can walk up to the fortress, where the reconstructed halls and column bases give a sense of the original layout, and the hilltop provides a long view across Yerevan to Mount Ararat on clear days. A visit takes one to one and a half hours. The museum has English-language guided tours, which add useful context to what is otherwise a sparse archaeological site. Mornings give the clearest air and the least heat in summer, and the site has little shade. Crowds are small compared with central attractions, so photographs of the walls and inscriptions are easy to take. Erebuni lies about 20 minutes by taxi from the centre, and a taxi is the practical way to reach it. Entry is for a modest fee, and Armenian citizens enter free on the last Saturday of the month.