Yerevan

Yerevan is a city in Armenia. It is the capital.

A river runs through it. Far behind the city, a giant snowy mountain rises up.

Yerevan is the capital of Armenia, a country between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The city lies in the northeastern part of the Ararat Valley, on both banks of the Hrazdan River, between 900 and 1,200 meters above sea level.

Preliminary figures from Armenia's Statistical Committee put the population at 1,144,700 on 1 October 2025, up from 1,136,300 a year before. That is more than a third of all the people in Armenia.

Yerevan, the capital of the Republic of Armenia, lies in the northeastern part of the Ararat Valley on both banks of the Hrazdan, at 900 to 1,200 m above sea level. The city covers 233 km² and is divided into 12 administrative districts, among them Kentron, Erebuni, Arabkir and Shengavit; it governs itself through the Yerevan Council of Elders and the mayor.

Armenia's Statistical Committee, in current estimates based on the 2022 census, put the country's permanent population at 3,090,500 on 1 October 2025; preliminary data give Yerevan 1,144,700, against 1,136,300 in 2024. Yerevan is therefore home to more than a third of Armenia's people.

On a hill in Yerevan are the walls of a very old fort. It was built long, long ago.

The city also has gardens full of sculptures and a big house full of old handwritten books.

On Arin Berd hill, in the southeast of the city, are the remains of Erebuni, the fortress-town that began Yerevan. A museum about the city's founding opened at the foot of the hill in 1968.

North of the center, the Matenadaran keeps about 20,000 handwritten books, called manuscripts, in Armenian and many other languages, on history, medicine, mathematics, music and more. Nearby, the Cascade, with its garden terraces, has been home to the Cafesjian Center for the Arts since 2009, along with a sculpture garden.

Erebuni, the fortress on Arin Berd hill, is where the city's story begins; the Museum of Yerevan's foundation opened at its foot during the 2,750th-anniversary celebrations of October 1968. The Matenadaran, the Mesrop Mashtots Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, grew from the manuscript collection of Etchmiadzin, which was moved to Yerevan in 1939. Its museum building, designed by Mark Grigoryan, was built between 1945 and 1959, and today it holds about 20,000 manuscripts in Armenian, Greek, Arabic, Persian, Latin, Georgian and other languages; medieval Armenian translations there preserve some works lost in their original languages.

The Cascade, with its garden terraces near the Matenadaran, houses the Cafesjian Center for the Arts, which opened in November 2009 and shows contemporary art in its galleries, terraces and sculpture garden.

Yerevan has an underground train called the metro. It has one line.

Most of its stations are under the ground.

Yerevan's metro opened on 8 March 1981. It has one line with a short branch, 12.1 kilometers long in all, with 10 stations. On the main line only two stations, Sassountsi David at the main railway station and Gortsaranayin, are above ground. The branch to Charbakh, a station at street level, opened in 1996.

The metro was first planned as a partly underground tram, but as the city grew, a full metro was built instead. Its trains are a type also used in Moscow and other cities of the former Soviet Union.

Planners first intended a partly underground rapid tram, but as the population grew a full metro was chosen. The first section, from Baregamutyun to Sassountsi David at the main railway station, opened on 8 March 1981; Republic Square station was added that December, and the line was extended south in stages through the 1980s. The surface branch to Charbakh, opened on 26 December 1996, runs as a separate shuttle.

With the branch, the line is 12.1 km long with 10 stations; on the main line only Sassountsi David and Gortsaranayin are above ground, and Charbakh is a surface station. UrbanRail.net notes that the metro was not damaged in the 1988 earthquake. Its trains are of the 81-717 series, also used in Moscow and other former-Soviet cities.

Every year, Yerevan has a birthday party called Erebuni-Yerevan. There are songs, flowers and concerts.

People visit a museum of old books and a garden full of big sculptures.

Yerevan celebrates its birthday with a yearly festival called Erebuni-Yerevan. The first was in October 1968, for the city's 2,750th anniversary. That week, a choir of 2,750 singers performed, a park with 2,750 fountains opened, and 2,750 trees were planted.

The Matenadaran is named after Mesrop Mashtots, who created the Armenian alphabet. Visitors come to its museum to see old handwritten books, and the Cafesjian Center for the Arts shows modern art in the Cascade and its sculpture garden.

The Erebuni-Yerevan celebration began in October 1968 with the 2,750th anniversary of the city: a week of new books, films, exhibitions and songs, a choir of 2,750 singers, a park with 2,750 fountains, a memorial drinking fountain in Republic Square, and 2,750 trees planted at the foot of Arin Berd hill. Over the years the festival has added carnivals, national games, sports competitions and other events.

The Matenadaran became a research institute on 3 March 1959 and was named in 1962 after Mesrop Mashtots, the creator of Armenian writing; a new research building opened in 2011. Its collection covers history, geography, grammar, philosophy, law, medicine, mathematics, music and miniature painting. The Cafesjian Center for the Arts, opened in 2009, brings contemporary art to Armenia and presents Armenian culture abroad.