Yerevan City

Yerevan (Armenian: sometimes written as Erevan, Iravan, Erewan, Ayrivan, and Erivan; former names include Erebuni, Revan, Ereun) is the capital and largest city of Armenia. It is situated on the Hrazdan River, and is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country. It has been the capital of Armenia since 1918 and the twelfth in the history of Armenia.

The history of Yerevan dates back to the 8th century BC, with the founding of the Urartian fortress of Erebuni in 782 BC at the western extremity of the Ararat plain. After World War I, Yerevan became the capital of the Democratic Republic of Armenia as thousands of survivors of the Armenian Genocide settled in the area. The city expanded rapidly during the 20th century when Armenia became one of the fifteen republics in the Soviet Union. In fifty years, Yerevan was transformed from a town of a few thousand residents during the first republic to the principal cultural, artistic and industrial center as well as becoming the seat of the political institutions of the country.

Early Christian Armenian chroniclers attributed Yerevan's origin to having been derived from an expression exclaimed by Noah, in Armenian, while looking in the direction of Yerevan, after the ark had landed on Mount Ararat and the flood waters had receded: "Yerevats!" ("it appeared!"). Another theory on the origin of the name is that the city was named after the Armenian king, Yervand IV (the Last), the last leader of the Orontid Dynasty and founder of the city of Yervandashat. However, it is likely that the city's name is derived from an Urartian military fortress called Erebuni (Էրեբունի), which was founded on the territory of modern-day Yerevan in 782 B.C. by Argishti I.

Climate
The climate of Yerevan is relatively continental, with dry, hot summers and cold and short winters. This is attributed to the fact that Yerevan is located on a plain surrounded by mountains and to its distance to the sea and its effects. The summers are usually very hot with the temperature in August reaching up to 40 °C (104 °F), while winters generally carry snowfall and freezing temperates with January being often as cold as -15 °C (5 °F). The amount of precipitation is small, amounting annually to about 350 mm (14 in). The city has an annual period of sunshine of approximately 2,700 hours.

Museums and Libraries
Yerevan's principal museum is the National Gallery of Armenia that was constructed in 1921. It is integrated with the Armenia's History Museum. In addition to having a permanent exposition of works of painters such as Aivazovsky, Kandinsky, Chagall, Theodore Rousseau, Monticelli or Eugene Boudin, it usually hosts temporary expositions such as Yann Arthus-Bertrand in 2005 or the one organized on the occasion of the Year of Armenia in France in October 2006.

The Armenian Genocide museum is found at the foot of Tsitsernakaberd and features numerous eyewitness accounts, texts and photographs from the time. It comprises a Memorial stone made of three parts, the latter of which is dedicated to the intellectual and political figures who, as the museum's site says, "raised their protest against the Genocide committed against the Armenians by the Turks. Among them there are Armin T. Wegner, Hedvig Bull, Henry Morgenthau, Franz Werfel, Johannes Lepsius, James Bryce, Anatole France, Giacomo Gorrini, Benedict XV, Fritjof Nansen, Fayez el Husseini". This place of remembrance was created by Laurenti Barseghian, the Museum's director, and Pietro Kuciukian, the founder of the "Memory is the Future" Committee for the Righteous for the Armenians. This Memorial hosts the ashes or fistfuls of earth from the tombs of the Righteous and of those non-Armenians who witnessed the genocide and tried to help the Armenians. Here, people also celebrates living characters who stand out for their pro-memory engagement.

The Matenadaran is a library-museum regrouping 17 000 ancient manuscripts and several bibles from the Middle Ages. Its archives hold a rich collection of valuable ancient Armenian, Greek, Assyrian, Hebrew, Roman and Persian manuscripts. It is located in the center of the city on Mesrop Mashdots avenue.
Next to the Hrazdan river, the Sergey Parajanov Museum that was completely renovated in 2002, has 250 works, documents and photos of the Armenian filmmaker and painter. Yerevan has several other museums like the museum of the Middle-East and the Museum of Yerevan.

 Cinemas, Theatres, Opera and Concert Halls
The city of Yerevan possesses two operating cinema halls; among them the famous Moskva cinema. Most of the world's hit movies are available to watch at the same time of their release elsewhere. Most of the movies that are shown in the cinemas are Russian.

Since 2004, Moskva hosts each year the Golden Apricot international film festival. The last edition of the festival presided by Atom Egoyan was held from July 9 to July 14 2007 with the Golden Apricot going to the film Import/Export from Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl.

  The Opera Theatre of Yerevan hosts the Aram Khatchaturian concert hall, the national theatre of opera and the Alexander Spendiarian ballet. The numerous theatres have permitted attendance to a multitude of various pieces and the some spectacle rooms, of which the big one Hamalir, sometimes offer some concerts even if the temperate Armenian summers allow the organization of the bulk of the concerts to be held outside.

 Amusement Parks
Waterworld is a water park in Yerevan. It has several pools, toboggans, bars and restaurants. The park used to close from October to May but construction of an indoors section called Aquatek has permitted the water park to be open all year. The indoors section has jacuzzis, pools, hammams, fitness rooms, restaurants and a hotel.
On the road to Lake Sevan, there is an amusement park called Play City that has a bowling arena, a cinema, paint-ball, carting and video-game rooms.

 Tourism
Tourism in Armenia has been developing every year and the capital city of Yerevan is one of the major tourist destinations. The city has the majority of hotels, restaurants, bars and nightclubs in the country. Zvartnots airport has also conducted renovation projects with the growing number of tourists visiting the country. Two major tourist attractions are the Opera House, the ruins of an Urartu fortress and a Roman fortress.