| Armenian Highland Armenian: Հայկական Բարձրավանդակ |
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 The Armenian Mountain Range near the Turkey-Iran border
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| Country |  Armenia Azerbaijan Georgia Iran Turkey |
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| Highest point | Mount Ararat |
| - elevation | 5,165 m (16,946 ft) |
| - coordinates | 39°43′N 44°16′E / 39.717°N 44.267°E |
| Area | 400,000 km2 (154,441 sq mi) |
 Satellite image
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The Armenian Highland (Armenian: Հայկական Բարձրավանդակ; Russian: Армянское нагорье; also known as the Armenian Upland, Armenian plateau, or simply Armenia[1]) is the central-most and highest of three land-locked plateaus that together form the northern sector of the Middle East.[1] To its west is the Anatolian plateau which rises slowly from the lowland coast of the Aegean Sea and rises to an average height of 3,000 feet.[1] In Armenia, the average height rises dramatically to 3,000 to 7,000 feet.[1] To its southeast is the Iranian plateau, where the elevation drops rapidly to an average 2,000 to 5,000 feet above sea level.[1]
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Name
After the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, Turkey, in an attempt to shroud the Armenian heritage of its eastern lands, changed Armenian placenames, including that of the Highland from the "Armenian plateau" to "Eastern Anatolia."[2]
Geography
Its total area is about 400,000 km².[3] Geologically recent volcanism on the area has resulted in large volcanic formations and a series of massifs and tectonic movement has formed the three largest lakes in the Highland, Lake Sevan, Lake Van and Lake Urmia.[4]
Most of the Armenian Highland is in Turkey's Eastern Anatolia Region (Doğu Anadolu Bölgesi), southern Georgia, and also includes northwestern Iran, all of Armenia, and western Azerbaijan.[3] Its eastern parts are also known as the Transcaucasian highland (Zakavkazkoye nagorye).[5]
History
From 4,000 B.C. to 1,000 B.C., tools and trinkets of copper, bronze and iron were commonly produced in this region and traded in neighboring lands where those metals were less abundant.[6]
The Armenian Plateau has been called the "epicenter of the Iron Age", since it appears to be the location of the first appearance of Iron Age metallurgy in the late 2nd millennium BC.[7][page needed][Need quotation on talk to verify][8] In the Early Iron Age, the kingdom of Urartu controlled much of the region.
Throughout Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the Armenian Highland was a heavily contested territory of the Byzantine, the Persian, and Arab spheres of influence. It was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, and during the 19th century, it was the boundary of the Ottoman and the Russian spheres of influence. Since the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, it has been the boundary region of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran and the Soviet Union and, since the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Flora and fauna
The apricot was known by the Romans as the prunus armenicus (the Armenian plum).[1]
Notable peaks
| Rank | Mountain | Prominence | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mount Ararat | 5,165 m |  Iğdır Province |
| 2 | Mount Aragats | 4,095 m |  Aragatsotn Province |
| 3 | Mount Sipan | 4,058 m | Bitlis Province |
| 4 | Mount Qapichigh,Kaputchugh | 3,906 m |  Ordubad, Syunik |
| 5 | Mount Azhdahak | 3,597 m | Gegharkunik Province |
| 6 | Mount Kezelboghaz | 3,594 m | Syunik Province |
| 7 | Mount Artos | 3,515 m | Van Province |
See also
- History of Armenia
- Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century. Richard G. Hovannisian (ed.) New York: St. Martin's Press, pp. 1-17
- ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. "Etiology and Sequelae of the Armenian Genocide" in Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions. George J. Andreopoulos (ed.) University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994, p. 127.
- ^ a b "Armenian Highland." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia
- ^ Emerald Network Pilot Project in Armenia, Council of Europe.
- ^ Clifford Embleton. Geomorphology of Europe. 1984, p. 393.
- ^ Samuelian, Thomas J. "Armenian Origins: An Overview of Ancient and Modern Sources and Theories1." Ararat-Center.
- ^ Aitcheson, Leslie. A History of Metals, vol. I, II, 1960
- ^ Lang, David M. Armenia: Cradle of Civilization. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1970, pp. 50-51, 58-59.
Further reading
- Hewsen, Robert H. (2001), Armenia: A Historical Atlas (1st ed.), Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-33228-4, http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/332284.html
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