Erebuni Museum

On Arin Berd hill, above the museum, stand the excavated remains of Erebuni, a fortress-city that a cuneiform inscription records was built by Argishti I, king of Urartu, in 782 BCE. Parts of the citadel have been reinforced and restored as an outdoor museum. Built mostly of raw brick, it was ringed in places by three rows of walls. Its temple of the god Khaldi had walls decorated with numerous frescoes.

The museum building at the foot of the hill holds more than 12,000 exhibits from the site. Among them are giant karases, large wine-storage jars that were buried in the ground. Ceramics, potter's wheels, bronze bracelets, glass and agate beads also show how the citadel's inhabitants lived. Sculpture by Ara Harutyunyan on the building's exterior depicts the history of Urartu and earned him a diploma of the USSR Union of Architects in 1970.

The museum, known in Armenian as Էրեբունի, opened in 1968 to mark Yerevan's 2750th anniversary. It also runs branches at the archaeological sites of Shengavit and Karmir Blur.