Urartu (a.k.a. Ararat) was an ancient kingdom in eastern Anatolia, centred in the mountainous region around Lake Van (present-day Turkey), which existed from about 1000 BC, or earlier, until 585 BC, and which, at its apogee, stretched from northern Mesopotamia through the southern Caucasus, involving parts of present-day Armenia up to Lake Sevan.
Urartu archaeological sites include Altintepe, Toprakkale, Patnos and Cavustepe. Urartu fortresses are found in Van, Erebuni (present day Yerevan), Anzaf, Cavustepe and Başkale.
They were repeatedly subjected to attacks by the Assyrians, especially under Tukulti-Ninurta I (ca. 1240 BC), Tiglath-Pileser I (ca. 1100 BC), Ashur-bel-kala (ca. 1070 BC), Adad-nirari II (ca. 900), Tukulti-Ninurta II (ca. 890), and Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC).
These towns or tribes became a unified kingdom under king Aramu (ca. 860-843 BC), whose capital at Arzashkun was captured by Shalmaneser III.
Sardur I (ca. 832-820 BC), son of Lutipri, seems to have been a usurper who founded the main dynasty. He moved the capital to the ancient city of Tushpa (modern Van, on the shore of Lake Van), fortifying it. His son, Ispuini (ca. 820-800 BC) annexed the neighbouring state of Musasir and made his son Sardur II viceroy; Ispuini was in turn attacked by Shamshi-Adad V. His successor Menua (ca. 800-785 BC) also enlarged the kingdom greatly and left inscriptions over a wide area. Argishtish I (ca. 785-760 BC) added more territories along the Araxes river and Lake Erivan, and frustrated Shalmaneser IV's campaigns against him.
At its height, the Urartu kingdom may have stretched North beyond the Aras River (Greek Araxes) and Lake Sevan, encompassing present-day Armenia and even the southern part of Georgia almost to the shores of the Black Sea; west to the sources of the Euphrates; east to present-day Tabriz, Lake Urmia, and beyond; and south to the sources of the Tigris.
In 714 BC, the Urartu kingdom suffered heavily from Cimmerian raids and the campaigns of Sargon II. The main temple at Mushashir was sacked, and the Urartian king Rusa I was defeated by Sargon at Lake Urmia.
Urartu was then invaded by Scythians from the north, and finally conquered by the Scythians' associates, the Medes, in 612 BC. Many Urartu ruins show evidence of destruction by fire. Even before the Urartuian empire came to an end, Armenians had been mixing with the Urartuians. Language and mythology of Urartu had important influence over languages and cultures of Georgia and Armenia.
The existence of Urartu was forgotten by the 5th century AD. It was not rediscovered until historical and archaeological work done in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when Urartian ruins were generally assumed to be Assyrian. Some modern Armenians claim descent from the Urartians. There could be truth to this, since both Armenians and the Urartians had a link with the Hurrians. The relationship between the Armenians and the Hurro-Urartians is roughly the same as that of the Romans with the Etruscans or that of the Greeks with the Minoans and other Pelasgians.
Their king was also the chief-priest or envoy of Khaldi, their major deity. Some Khaldi temples were part of the royal palace complex while others were independent structures. Other deities included Teisheba, god of the heavens (the Teshshub of the Hurrians and Khurits), and Shiwini, the sun goddess.
The Urartu language was originally written using locally-developed hieroglyphics, but the Urartians adapted the Assyrian cuneiform script for most purposes. After the 8th century BC, the hieroglyphic script was restricted to religious and accounting purposes. Currently, samples of Urartian written language have survived in many inscriptions found in the area of Urartu kingdom.