Erebuni Museum-reserve

Erebuni Museum-reserve of Yerevan was opened in 1968. It is known that Yerevan is the most ancient capital in the world. It is true, that the real age of Yerevan is 5000 or more years, if to consider the civilization, of its quarter Shengavit, but the date of the foundation of the city conventionally considered the date the fortress of Erebuni was founded, 782 BC. The museum is located on the hill of Arin-Berd, where the fortress of Erebuni is also located. Erebuni Museum receives thousands of visitors a year. The building of the museum imitates the structure of the Urartian palace, preserving the logical principle of folk residential houses, built around a courtyard with deaf external walls and flat earthen roofs. The history and the culture of the city-fortress of Erebuni are presented in the museum-reserve. Highly artistic materials, discovered during the excavations in the ancient settlements of Erebuni Karmir-Blur (Red Hill) and the Urartian tomb of the 8th century BC in Yerevan are presented in the showrooms. Red clay vessels in the form of bull head and a lion head, a bronze crown of Sarduri II, fragments of frescoes of Erebuni, silver drinking horns and other valuable items stand out among them. The citadel, excavated on a hilltop of Arinberd, with its palace, religious and economic buildings is an organic continuation of the exposure. The most important finding of the monument, the cuneiform inscription about the foundation of the city-fortress of Erebuni is also located here. It is the passport of the ancient Erebuni-Yerevan. The extraordinary values of the museum collection were repeatedly exhibited at the Louvre (France), in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (USA), at the Hermitage (Russia), in the British Museum (UK) and other well-known cultural institutions.