Armavir, Ancient city ruins in Armavir Region, Armenia.

Armavir is an archaeological mound in the Ararat plain, 1 km west of the village of Armavir and 7–8 km southwest of the town of Armavir. The photograph shows a broad, low earthen rise with horizontal banding of brown and tan soil, an uneven top, and a thin line of dark green vegetation at its base; no standing walls, columns or inscriptions are visible on the surface.

Inhabited since the 6th millennium BC, the site was chosen in 331 BC as capital of Armenia after the Orontids broke from the Achaemenid Empire. King Argishti I of Urartu had already built the fortress of Argishtikhinili here in the first half of the 8th century BC. Under Abbas I the Armenians were resettled in Persia and ancient Armavir was abandoned; in 1613 seven Armenian families rebuilt a village 1 km east of the ruins.

Armavir's name is tied to Armenian tradition: Movses Khorenatsi credits its founding to Aramais, grandson of Hayk, and calls it the first capital of the Kingdom of Armenia. Excavations have yielded Achaemenid-period clay slabs inscribed in Elamite with episodes of the Gilgamesh epic, and Hellenistic Greek carvings of around the 3rd century BC, including poetry by Hesiod, lines from Euripides, a list of Macedonian months and names of Orontid kings.

The ruins lie on a low earthen rise in the Ararat plain, about 1 km west of the village of Armavir and 7–8 km southwest of Armavir town, near the villages of Haykavan, Jrashen and Nor Armavir. Nothing built stands on the hill today, so look for surface traces and bands of exposed soil rather than walls. The site is reached by road from the village; the ground is uneven and unshaded.

Clay tablets found at Armavir bear Elamite writing from the Achaemenid period, including episodes of the Gilgamesh epic. Third-century BC Greek inscriptions from the site preserve poetry of Hesiod, lines of Euripides, a list of Macedonian months and the names of Orontid kings.