Yerevan

Yerevan is the capital of Armenia, on the Hrazdan River in the Ararat Plain, with Mount Ararat in view to the south. Many of its buildings are made of pink volcanic tuff, which gave it the nickname of the Pink City.

Argishti I, king of Urartu, founded the fortress of Erebuni on a hill in the southeast of the city in 782 BC, and a cuneiform inscription found there records the date. Persian, Ottoman and Russian rulers held the town in turn, and it was a modest trading town on the caravan routes when it became the capital of the first Armenian republic in 1918. In the 1920s the architect Alexander Tamanian drew up a master plan of circular avenues and squares, and the new city was built around it in local stone.

The Yerevan Brandy Company makes Ararat brandy, aged in oak barrels in cellars on the bank of the Hrazdan. Grand Candy, based in the city, makes chocolates, sweets and ice cream sold across Armenia. Picsart, the photo and video editing app, was founded in Yerevan by Hovhannes Avoyan.

The Matenadaran, a research institute named after Mesrop Mashtots, the creator of the Armenian alphabet, keeps tens of thousands of medieval manuscripts. Republic Square, designed by Tamanian, is framed by government buildings and museums behind arcades of pink and yellow tuff. The Cascade, a giant stairway of terraces and fountains, links the center with the upper districts and houses the Cafesjian Center for the Arts, with sculptures by Fernando Botero in the garden at its foot. Levon Aronian, the chess grandmaster who led Armenia to several Olympiad titles, was born in Yerevan.