The Kingdom of Urartu

Urartu grows up on the Armenian highlands as an answer to Assyrian pressure: scattered mountain districts unite around the fortresses by Lake Van. The Urartian kings build strongholds of stone, cut canals tens of kilometres long, plant orchards and vineyards, and are famed for their bronze and weaponry. The Assyrians campaign against them, and Sargon II left a detailed report of one such expedition. In the seventh century the kingdom weakens under the blows of the Cimmerians and Scythians, and its lands are later taken by the Armenians; the biblical land of Ararat, where the murderers of Sennacherib flee, is this kingdom.