Lake Sevan in the context of "First Republic of Armenia"

Urartu was an Iron Age kingdom centered around the Armenian highlands between Lake Van, Lake Urmia, and Lake Sevan. The territory of the ancient kingdom of Urartu extended over the modern frontiers of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Armenia. Its kings left behind cuneiform inscriptions in the Urartian language, a member of the Hurro-Urartian language family.

Urartu extended from the Euphrates in the west 850 km to the region west of Ardabil in Iran, and 500 km from Lake Çıldır near Ardahan in Turkey to the region of Rawandiz in Iraqi Kurdistan. The kingdom emerged in the mid-9th century BC and dominated the Armenian highlands in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. Urartu frequently warred with Assyria and became, for a time, the most powerful state in the Near East. Weakened by constant conflict, it was eventually conquered, either by the Iranian Medes in the early 6th century BC or by Cyrus the Great in the middle of the 6th century BC. Archaeologically, it is noted for its large fortresses and sophisticated metalwork.

The Hrazdan (Armenian: Հրազդան, Hrazdan) is a major river and the second largest in Armenia. It originates at the northwest extremity of Lake Sevan and flows south through the Kotayk Province and Armenia's capital, Yerevan; the lake in turn is fed by several streams. In the Ararat plain it joins the Aras river along the border with Turkey. It joins as a left tributary the Kura river, which then flows into the Caspian Sea.

A series of hydro-electric projects have been constructed on the Hrazdan. Its waters are in demand to irrigate crops.

Argišti I, was the sixth known king of Urartu, reigning from 786 BC to 764 BC. He founded the citadel of Erebuni in 782 BC, which is the present capital of Armenia, Yerevan. Alternate transliterations of the name include Argishtis, Argisti, Argišti, and Argishtish. Although the name is usually rendered as Argišti (read: Argishti), some scholars argue that Argisti is the most likely pronunciation. This is due to the belief that the Urartians used the cuneiform symbol š to voice an s-sound, as opposed to representing the digraph sh.

A son and the successor of Menua, he continued the series of conquests initiated by his predecessors, apparently campaigning every year of his reign. He was involved in a number of inconclusive conflicts with the Assyrian king Shalmaneser IV. He conquered the northern part of Syria and made Urartu the most powerful state in post-Hittite Asia Minor. He also expanded his kingdom north to Lake Sevan, conquering much of Diauehi and the Ararat Valley. After an uprising by the inhabitants of the newly conquered regions, Argišti deported them and repopulated the area with subjects from other parts of his empire. In those territories, Argišti built Erebuni Fortress in 782 BC, settling it with 6,600 prisoners of war from Hatti and Supani. He also founded the fortress of Argištiḫinili in 776 BC, on the site of Armavir, the first capital of the later Kingdom of Armenia. Inscriptions belonging to the Urartian king Argišti I were found in Kepenek Castle, located on a hill near Muş.

The Gegham mountains (or Gegham Ridge; Armenian: Գեղամա լեռնաշղթա, romanized: Geġama lernasheghta) are a range of mountains in Armenia. The range is a tableland-type watershed basin of Sevan Lake from east, inflows of rivers Araks and Hrazdan from north and west, Azat and Vedi rivers from south-west and Arpachai river from south. The average elevation of the Gegham mountain range is near 2500m. The range is of volcanic origin including many extinct volcanoes. The range is 70 km length and 48 km width, and stretch between Lake Sevan and the Ararat plain. The highest peak of the Gegham mountains is the Azhdahak, at 3597m. They are formed by a volcanic field, containing Pleistocene-to-Holocene lava domes and cinder cones. The highland reaches a height of 1800–2000m up to 3000m in the dividing ridge.

Gulls and seagulls are seabirds of the subfamily Larinae. They are most closely related to terns and skimmers, distantly related to auks, and even more distantly related to waders. Until the 21st century, most gulls were placed in the genus Larus, but that arrangement is now considered polyphyletic, leading to the resurrection and revision of several genera. An older name for gulls is mews; this still exists in certain regional English dialects and is cognate with German Möwe, Danish måge, Swedish mås, Dutch meeuw, Norwegian måke/måse, and French mouette.

Gulls are usually grey or white, often with black markings on the head or wings. They normally have harsh wailing or squawking calls, stout bills, and webbed feet. Most gulls are ground-nesting piscivores or carnivores which take live food or scavenge opportunistically, particularly the Larus species. Live food often includes crustaceans, molluscs, fish and small birds. Gulls have unhinging jaws that provide the flexibility to consume large prey. Gulls are typically coastal or inland species, rarely venturing far out to sea, except the kittiwakes and Sabine's gull. The large species take up to four years to attain full adult plumage, but two years is typical for small gulls. Large white-headed gulls are usually long-lived birds, with a maximum age of 49 years recorded for the European herring gull.

The energy crisis, popularly known as the "dark and cold years" (Armenian: Մութ ու ցուրտ տարիներ), refers to the energy crisis in Armenia and Artsakh during the 1990s, when the newly independent Armenia's population lived in shortage of energy and basic consumer goods. The crisis was caused by the joint Turkish–Azeri blockade which prevented the transportation of fuel and other supplies to Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. The blockade was initiated in 1989 by Azerbaijan, originally in response to the Karabakh movement which called for the region's independence from Azerbaijan and reunification with Armenia.

The energy crisis left a deep impact and impression on Armenian society. Local people have dubbed the years from 1992 to 1995 in different ways, such as "hungry", "cold", and "bad", but the most common title used is "the dark". Hospitals struggled to function due to acute shortages of electricity, heat, and medical supplies, which led to many ceasing operations. Electricity in Yerevan was available for only two hours a day, which raised the risk of freezing or starvation. Trees on hospital grounds were cut in order to provide wood for burning to keeping hospitals warm. By 1993, over half of the hospitals in Armenia had stopped operating because they lacked essential resources, leading to the deaths of healthy infants due to the cold and inadequate equipment. The energy crisis forced reliance on unsustainable practices like widespread deforestation and intensive agriculture, leading to risky energy solutions such as the potential reactivation of the Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant which had recently been closed due to the Spitak Earthquake. Lake Sevan, Armenia's largest freshwater body, experienced significant water level drops due to increased reliance on hydroelectric power to compensate for the energy shortfall. This drawdown for irrigation and energy purposes threatened the lake's ecosystem, endangering its flora and fauna.

Gegharkunik (Armenian: Գեղարքունիք, Armenian pronunciation: [ɡɛʁɑɾkʰuˈnikʰ] ) is a province (marz) of Armenia. Its capital and largest city is Gavar. Gegharkunik is inhabited by approximately 209,669 people and the majority are ethnic Armenians.

Gegharkunik Province is located at the eastern part of Armenia, bordering Azerbaijan. It includes the exclave of Artsvashen, which has been under Azerbaijani occupation since the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. With an area of 5,348 km (2,065 sq mi), Gegharkunik is the largest province in Armenia. However, approximately 24% or 1,278 km (493 sq mi) of its territory is covered by Lake Sevan, the largest lake in the South Caucasus and a major tourist attraction of the region.

Sevanavank (Armenian: Սևանավանք; meaning Sevan Monastery) is a monastic complex located on a peninsula at the northwestern shore of Lake Sevan in the Gegharkunik Province of Armenia, not far from the town of Sevan. Initially the monastery was built at the southern shore of a small island. After the artificial draining of Lake Sevan, which started in the era of Joseph Stalin, the water level fell about 20 metres, and the island transformed into a peninsula. At the southern shore of this newly created peninsula, a guesthouse of the Writers Union of Armenia was built. The eastern shore is occupied by the Armenian president's summer residence, while the monastery's still active seminary moved to newly constructed buildings at the northern shore of the peninsula.

Due to easier accessibility (once it became a peninsula), good highway and railway connections with the Armenian capital Yerevan, a well-developed tourist industry in the nearby town of Sevan, and its picturesque location (although less picturesque than it was before the lake level drop), Sevanavank is one of the most visited tourist sights in Armenia.