Coordinates: 40°06′53″N 43°40′15″E / 40.11472°N 43.67083°E / 40.11472; 43.67083

Yervandashat Երվանդաշատ
Overlooking village of Yervandashat.
Yervandashat Երվանդաշատ
Coordinates: 40°06′53″N 43°40′15″E / 40.11472°N 43.67083°E / 40.11472; 43.67083
Country	Armenia
Marz (Province)	Armavir
Founded	3rd century BCE
Population (2001)
- Total	695
Time zone	(UTC+4)
- Summer (DST)	(UTC+5)

Yervandashat (Armenian: Երվանդաշատ, also Romanized as Ervandashat; formerly, Kherbeklu and Kheyli-Begli) is a village in the Armavir Province of Armenia. The village has a ruined basilica dated to the fourth or fifth century and the Saint Shushanik church of the tenth to seventeenth century.

Just outside of the modern village are the ruins of ancient Yervandashat, a city founded by King Orontes IV (the last of the Orontid dynasty, in the 3rd century BCE. The ancient town sits upon an escarpment overlooking the junction of the Arax River and Akhurian River. According to Movses Kagankatvatsi, Orontes founded Yervandashat to replace Armavir as his capital after Armavir had been left dry by a shift of the Arax. The archaeological site has not been subject of major research, but preliminarily, the fortifications and some remains of palaces have been uncovered.

Ancient Yervandashat was destroyed by the army of the Persian King Shapur II in the 360s.

[edit] References

• Yervandashat at GEOnet Names Server
• The Kingdom of Armenia By Mack Chahin
• Report of the results of the 2001 Armenian Census, National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia

• Brady Kiesling, Rediscoving Armenia, p. 39, available online at the US embassy to Armenia's website

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