50 Fun Facts About Armenia

Armenia is a landlocked country bordered by Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran and which country to the west?

Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan exclave also touches it to the south.

In AD 301 Armenia became the first state in the world to do what?

King Tiridates III was converted by Gregory the Illuminator, partly in defiance of Sasanian Persia.

What is the native name Armenians use for their country?

It comes from Hayk, the legendary patriarch said to be a great-great-grandson of Noah.

Which state, established in 860 BC, is considered the first Armenian state?

It fell in the 6th century BC and was replaced by the Persian Satrapy of Armenia.

Yerevan traces its founding to the fortress of Erebuni, built in 782 BC by which Urartian king?

A cuneiform inscription found in the city records the date, making Yerevan older than Rome.

Under which king, between 95 and 66 BC, was Armenia the most powerful kingdom east of the Roman Republic?

The Artaxiad dynasty had won full independence from the Seleucids in 190 BC.

Which two apostles are credited with first bringing Christianity to Armenia in the 1st century?

The Armenian Apostolic Church is regarded as the world's oldest national church.

Who invented the Armenian alphabet around AD 405?

It originally had 36 letters and now has 39; the word for alphabet, aybuben, comes from its first two letters.

The Armenian mother church at Vagharshapat (301-303) is often called the world's oldest what?

It stands in the town now known as Etchmiadzin.

The Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia, restored in the 9th century, fell in which year?

Ashot I had regained independence from the Abbasids in 884.

Cilician Armenia, an ally of the Crusaders, lay on the coast of which sea?

It saw itself as a bastion of Christendom in the East.

Which two empires divided the Armenian homeland between them from the 16th century?

Russia took Eastern Armenia from Qajar Iran by the treaties of 1813 and 1828.

Up to how many Armenians were killed in the genocide that began in 1915?

It began with the arrest of intellectuals in Constantinople on 24 April 1915, now the annual day of remembrance.

Which Ottoman leader ordered the death marches of 1915-16 into the Syrian desert?

Turkish authorities deny to this day that the killings were genocide.

The First Republic of Armenia declared independence on 28 May of which year?

It was absorbed into the Soviet Union as the Armenian SSR by 1920.

Modern Armenia declared independence from the Soviet Union on which date in 1991?

It followed the failed August coup in Moscow.

The 1988 earthquake centred on Spitak killed between 25,000 and 50,000 people; what was its magnitude?

Charles Aznavour set up his charity Aznavour for Armenia in response.

Which neighbour closed its border with Armenia in 1993, citing the first Nagorno-Karabakh war?

Turkey closed it; protocols to reopen it were signed in 2009 but never took effect.

Azerbaijan reincorporated the breakaway Republic of Artsakh after an offensive in which year?

The September offensive followed a months-long siege; the region's Armenians fled.

Nikol Pashinyan came to power in 2018 after protests he called what?

Serzh Sargsyan resigned and parliament elected Pashinyan prime minister in May 2018.

In August 2025 Pashinyan and Ilham Aliyev signed a peace declaration at which venue?

It committed both countries to end nearly four decades of conflict.

Mount Aragats, Armenia's highest point, rises to what height?

No point in the country lies below 390 m, and 85.9% of it is mountainous.

Mount Ararat, Armenia's national symbol, is depicted on the country's coat of arms along with what?

The mountain forms a near-quadripoint of Turkey, Iran, Armenia and Nakhchivan.

Lake Sevan sits at 1,900 metres and is the largest body of water in which region?

Its basin covers a sixth of Armenia's territory.

What is Armenia's currency, introduced in 1993?

It suffered hyperinflation in its first years and was subdivided into 100 luma.

What was Armenia's population in 2025?

It peaked at 3.6 million in 1991 and had fallen through emigration to about 3.1 million by 2025.

The Areni-1 cave complex yielded the world's oldest known leather shoe and oldest known what?

The 5,500-year-old shoe and the 6,100-year-old winery were found in Vayots Dzor.

Which Armenian flatbread was inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2014?

It is baked in a tonir or tandoor clay oven.

The duduk, Armenia's mournful double-reed instrument, is made from the wood of which tree?

Djivan Gasparyan played it on the soundtracks of Gladiator and Blood Diamond.

What is a khachkar?

The largest cemetery of them, at Julfa in Nakhchivan, once held about 10,000.

The monastery of Geghard takes its name from which relic once kept there?

Geghard means 'spear'; the monastery is partly carved from the mountain.

The Temple of Garni is the only largely preserved Hellenistic building where?

It is thought to be a 1st-century temple to Mihr, rebuilt in 1969-75 after a 1679 earthquake.

The Wings of Tatev cableway to Tatev monastery holds the record for the longest what?

It runs 5.7 km from Halidzor and opened in October 2010.

Which Armenian composer wrote the Sabre Dance, from his ballet Gayane?

He was born in Tbilisi and also wrote the ballet Spartacus.

French-Armenian singer Charles Aznavour recorded more than how many songs in a career of over 70 years?

He was born Shahnur Aznavourian in Paris in 1924.

'Iron Tigran' Petrosian was world chess champion between which years?

He beat Botvinnik, held off Spassky in 1966 and lost to him in 1969.

Levon Aronian led Armenia to Chess Olympiad gold in 2006, 2008 and which other year?

Armenia also won the World Team Championship in 2011.

Which country hosts the largest Armenian diaspora community, ahead of the United States?

The US Census counts about 428,000 Armenian Americans.

Which country runs the military base at Gyumri in north-west Armenia?

Armenia expelled that country's border guards from Zvartnots airport in 2024.

The capital's metro, opened in March 1981, was the eighth such system in which country?

It is named after Karen Demirchyan.

Which Soviet-era nuclear plant, criticised by EU officials, was still running in Armenia in 2025?

The government has explored small modular reactors despite abundant hydro and wind potential.

Which people, about 1.1% of the population, built their faith's largest temple in Armenia in 2019?

Quba Mêrê Dîwanê stands in the village of Aknalich.

Traditional Armenian wrestling, an influence on Soviet sambo, is called what?

Armenia won its first Olympic medals as an independent nation in wrestling in 1996.

Which club won the Armenian Premier League title in the 2023-24 season?

FC Ararat Yerevan was the great side of the 1970s, winning the Soviet Top League in 1973.

Which Armenian won his nation's first Olympic medals, in gymnastics at Helsinki 1952?

He said Armenians had to outdo rivals 'by several notches' to make Soviet teams.

Which reward does the Armenian government promise its Olympic gold medallists?

Chess, weightlifting and wrestling are its strongest sports.

Sultan Abdul Hamid II's state-sponsored massacres of 1894-96 killed roughly how many Armenians?

They followed the 1894 Sasun rebellion.

Gregory the Illuminator's church at Vagharshapat was the seat of which Armenian Church head?

The seat later returned there and remains today.

After Avarayr in 451, Armenia won religious autonomy under a 484 agreement signed where?

Vardan Mamikonian's Christians lost the battle but kept their faith.

Which memorial, built on a hill above the Hrazdan gorge in the capital, commemorates the genocide?

Its eternal flame is visited by hundreds of thousands every 24 April.