Armavir (village)

Armavir Արմավիր
World War II memorial
Armavir
Coordinates: 40°05′23″N 44°02′54″E / 40.08972°N 44.04833°E / 40.08972; 44.04833
Country	Armenia
Marz (Province)	Armavir
Founded	1613
Population (2008)
• Total	2,989
Time zone	(UTC+4)

Coordinates: 40°05′23″N 44°02′54″E / 40.08972°N 44.04833°E / 40.08972; 44.04833

Armavir (Armenian: Արմավիր) is a village in the Armavir Province of Armenia. Cuneiform inscriptions of Urartian King Sarduri II were found at Armavir.

The village was founded in 1613, 1 km east of the site of ancient Armavir. After the Ottoman occupation, Armavir was renamed Ghurdughuli by the Turks in 1635. After the Soviet occupation of Armenia, the name of the village was renamed back Armavir in 1935.

The area of ancient Armavir was inhabited since the 6th millennium BC. Various obsidian instruments, bronze objects and pottery have been found from that period. Armavir was regarded as an ancient capital of Armenia, said to have been founded by King Aramais in 1980 BC.

During the first half of the 8th century BC, King Argishti I of Urartu built a fortress in the area and named it Argishtikhinili. In 331 BC, when Armenia under the Orontid Dynasty asserted its independence from the Achaemenid Empire, Armavir was chosen as the capital of Armenia. Slabs of clay have been found from the Achaemenid period written in the Elamite language concerning episodes of the Gilgamesh epic. Various inscriptions in Hellenistic Greek carved around the third century BC, have been found, including poetry from Hesiod, lines from Euripides, a list of Macedonian months, and names of Orontid Kings.