Urartu: A Visual History

Urartu (Biainili in its own language) was a kingdom centred on Lake Van in eastern Anatolia from about 860 to 590 BC. Its kings, Sarduri I, Menua, Argishti I and Sarduri II, built cyclopean stone fortresses, the 70-km Menua canal (still flowing), and an empire from the Euphrates to the Caspian and Lake Urmia. It was the chief obstacle to Assyrian expansion northward until Tiglath-Pileser III and Sargon II defeated it, Sargon sacking the temple of Musasir in 714. Cimmerians and Scythians further weakened it, and it was destroyed around 590 BC, probably by the Medes; the Armenians inherited its land.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Urartu. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Urartian territory

Timeline of the Urartu

1. 860 BC
   Arame unites Urartu
2. 830 BC
   Sarduri I fortifies Van
3. 800 BC
   Menua canal built
4. 782 BC
   Erebuni founded
5. 743 BC
   ArpadTiglath-Pileser III defeats Sarduri II.
6. 714 BC
   Sargon II sacks Musasir
7. 670 BC
   Rusa II's building programme
8. 590 BC
   Urartu destroyed

Rise

Assyrian texts mention the 'lands of Nairi' and Uruatri from the thirteenth century; around 860 BC Arame united them, and Sarduri I built the citadel at Van. Urartian, related to Hurrian, was written in Assyrian cuneiform. Menua (about 810-786) built forts, roads and the great canal bringing water to Van; Argishti I founded Erebuni (782), the origin of Yerevan, and Argishtihinili in the Ararat plain.

Empire and Assyria

Sarduri II (about 764-735) took Urartu to its widest, dominating northern Syria and the trade routes, until Tiglath-Pileser III defeated him at Arpad in 743 and besieged Van in 735. Sargon II's eighth campaign of 714 crossed the mountains, defeated Rusa I and plundered Musasir, whose god Haldi was Urartu's chief deity; the booty list runs to hundreds of items. Cimmerian raids from the north hit Urartu at the same time.

End

Rusa II (about 685-645) rebuilt: new fortresses at Toprakkale, Karmir Blur and Bastam, granaries and irrigation. But the record thins after him; Karmir Blur was stormed and burned, arrowheads of Scythian type in its walls, and the last kings vanish around 590 BC as the Medes advanced. Armenians appear in the region under Persian rule and Behistun calls the land Armina in Old Persian and Urartu in Babylonian.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Neo-Assyrian Empire (911 BC to 609 BC)
• Phrygia (1,200 BC to 700 BC)
• Scythia (800 BC to 300 BC)
• Median Empire (678 BC to 549 BC)
• Kingdom of Armenia (ancient) (331 BC to 428)
• Achaemenid Empire (550 BC to 330 BC)
• Middle Assyrian Empire (1,365 BC to 1,050 BC)

8 surprising things about the Urartu

1. The Menua canal, built around 800 BC, still carries water to Van's gardens today.
2. Urartu is the Assyrian form of Ararat; the mountain and the biblical land are the same name.
3. Yerevan traces its foundation to the Urartian fortress of Erebuni in 782 BC, making it older than Rome.
4. Sargon II's letter to the god Ashur describing his 714 campaign is one of the longest and most vivid Assyrian texts.
5. Urartian bronze cauldrons with bull and siren attachments have been found as far away as Etruria and Greece.
6. The Urartian kings dedicated everything to Haldi, a god known nowhere else, whose temple was at Musasir in Iraqi Kurdistan.
7. The Van citadel rock bears Xerxes' trilingual inscription, carved into a niche the Urartians had prepared 300 years earlier.
8. Karmir Blur's storerooms held wine jars for over 400,000 litres when the fortress burned.

Sources

• Urartu Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Urartu Wikipedia
• Urartu Civilization World History Encyclopedia
• Paul Zimansky, Ancient Ararat: A Handbook of Urartian Studies (1998) Caravan Books

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