Armenian Highland

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Orography of the Armenian Highland and the Caucasus

The Armenian Highland (Armenian: Հայկական Բարձրաւանդակ; Russian Armyanskoye Nagorye; also known as the Armenian Upland or Armenian Plateau, also referred as eastern Armenia) is a plateau of Transcaucasia, connecting the Lesser Caucasus with the Taurus Mountains.

Its total area is about 400,000 km².^[1] At an average elevation of 1500 to 2000 metres, its highest point is Mount Ararat, 5,165 metres (16,945 ft). It is a mixture of lava plateaus, volcanic cones, and fault-fold ranges featuring mountain steppes and semi-deserts. There are a number of lakes in tectonic depressions (Lake Sevan, Lake Van, Lake Urmia).

Most of the Armenian Highland is in Turkey's Eastern Anatolia Region (Doğu Anadolu Bölgesi), and also includes northwestern Iran, all of Armenia, southern Georgia and western Azerbaijan. Its eastern parts are also known as the Transcaucasian highland ("Zakavkazkoye nagorye").^[2]

The Armenian Plateau has been called the "epicenter of the Iron Age", since it appears to be the location of the first appearance of Iron Age metallurgy in the late 2nd millennium BC.^[3]

The apricot, a native to China, spread to Europe through the Armenia Highlands. It came to be known throughout the ancient world as the Armenian fruit, and its botanical name Prunus armeniaca, derives from the Latin vernacular for apricot, Armeniacum.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1980s, the ministry of education in Turkey ordered that names that could be conceived as reminiscent of pre-Turkic peoples of Anatolia like "Armenian highland" (Armenians) and "Pontic range" (Pontic Greeks) be effaced in atlases in Turkish schools. The official term of the plateau in Turkish usage is "Eastern Anatolian Highland".^{[citation needed]}