title: Antioch

text: The excavation team failed to find the major buildings they hoped to unearth, including Constantine's Great Octagonal Church or the imperial palace. However, a great accomplishment of the expedition was the discovery of high-quality Roman mosaics from villas and baths in Antioch, Daphne and Seleucia Pieria.


title: Antioch

text: The principal excavations of Mosaics at Antioch led by Princeton University in March 1932 recovered nearly 300 mosaics. Many of these mosaics were originally displayed as floor mosaics in private homes during the 2nd through 6th centuries AD, while others were displayed in baths and other public buildings. The majority of the Antioch mosaics are from the fourth and fifth centuries, Antioch's golden age, though others from earlier times have survived as well


title: Antioch

text: . The mosaics depict a variety of images including animals, plants, and mythological beings, as well as scenes from the daily lives of people living in the area at the time. Each mosaic is bordered by intricate designs and contains bold, vibrant colors.


title: Antioch

text: One mosaic includes a border that depicts a walk from Antioch to Daphne, showing many ancient buildings along the way. The mosaics are now displayed in the Hatay Archaeology Museum in Antakya. A collection of mosaics on both secular and sacred subjects which were once in churches, private homes, and other public spaces now hang in the Princeton University Art Museum and museums of other sponsoring institutions. The non-Islamic coins from the excavations were published by Dorothy B. Waage.


title: Antioch

text: A statue in the Vatican and a number of figurines and statuettes perpetuate the type of its great patron goddess and civic symbol, the Tyche (Fortune) of Antioch – a majestic seated figure, crowned with the ramparts of Antioch's walls and holding wheat stalks in her right hand, with the river Orontes as a youth swimming under her feet. According to William Robertson Smith the Tyche of Antioch was originally a young virgin sacrificed at the time of the founding of the city to ensure its continued prosperity and good fortune.


title: Antioch

text: The northern edge of Antakya has been growing rapidly over recent years, and this construction has begun to expose large portions of the ancient city, which are frequently bulldozed and rarely protected by the local museum.


title: Antioch

text: In April 2016, archaeologists discovered a Greek mosaic showing a skeleton lying down with a wine pitcher and loaf of bread alongside a text that reads: "Be cheerful, enjoy your life", it is reportedly from the 3rd century BC. Described as the "reckless skeleton" or "skeleton mosaic", the mosaic is once thought to have belonged in the dining room of an upper-class home.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: Doki Doki Literature Club! (DDLC) is a 2017 freeware visual novel developed by American independent game studio Team Salvato for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux. The game was initially distributed through itch.io, and later became available on Steam. The story is told from the perspective of a high school student who reluctantly joins the school's literature club on the insistence of his childhood best friend, and is given the option to romantically pursue three of its four female members. "Doki Doki Literature Club!" features a non-traditional plot structure with multiple endings and unlockable cutscenes with each of the main characters. Although the game initially appears to be a lighthearted dating simulator, it is in fact a psychological horror game that extensively breaks the fourth wall.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: The game was developed in an estimated two-year period by a team led by Dan Salvato, previously known for his modding work as part of "Project M". According to Salvato, the inspiration for the game came from his mixed feelings toward anime and a fascination for surreal and unsettling experiences. Upon its release, "Doki Doki Literature Club!" received positive critical attention for its successful use of horror elements and unconventional nature within the visual novel genre. The game also inspired various internet memes and achieved a large online following.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: An expanded version of the game, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!, was released for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Windows on June 30, 2021. A macOS version of the game was later released on August 12, 2021. It received generally positive reviews, with praise for its side stories and gameplay on consoles, but some criticism for its lack of changes. Unlike the original 2017 release, "Plus!" is a premium game.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: "Doki Doki Literature Club!" is a visual novel. As such, its gameplay has a low level of interactivity and consists of scenes with static two-dimensional images of characters in a first-person perspective, accompanied by occasional choices the player is forced to make in order to advance the plot. The descriptions and dialogue are depicted in the form of accompanying text without voice acting. The game's narration is provided by the game's protagonist (whom the player controls), a member of the titular literature club, to which he was invited by his childhood friend Sayori. Any decisions the player is advocated to make over the course of the plot affect the development of the protagonist's relationships with key female characters Sayori, Yuri, and Natsuki, but ultimately have little effect on the outcome of the game. The characters' interactions with the protagonist are primarily influenced by a minigame in which the player is required to compose a poem from a set of randomly selected individual words. Each girl in the literature club has different word preferences, and will react positively when the player picks a word that they like. The characters' reactions are stylized in the form of miniature chibi avatars of the characters which are displayed at the bottom of the screen during the minigame, and which will jump given the opportunity as a response to the player selecting one of their favorite words; Monika is not able to be romanced in this way, which later affects the plot of the game. Depending on the results of these minigames, the player will experience scenes for whatever character liked that particular poem the most. The narrative is divided into three acts and an epilogue, with the game restarting each time. At a certain point, the player must manipulate the game's files in order to advance the narrative.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: "Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!" features the entire main campaign of the original game, but includes a "virtual desktop" allowing access to character files without needing to manipulate computer files, as well as unlockable images, soundtrack, story-related content, and several new "side stories". The new content is unlocked by completing the main campaign, as well as the side stories. The new stories depict characterization of the relationships between the four club members, as well as the formation of the literature club, without any interaction from the player.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: The main protagonist is invited by his cheerful childhood friend Sayori to join their high school's literature club as a remedy for his insular nature. He reluctantly agrees to her proposal and meets the other members of the club: the assertive Natsuki, the shy Yuri, and the bubbly club president Monika. After each day passes in the literature club, the club members are prompted to compose a poem which they share with the other members the following day. Eventually, as the club prepares for the school's upcoming cultural festival in which the club members intend to share their poems with a wider audience, Sayori confides to the protagonist that she suffers from depression. The protagonist assists either Yuri or Natsuki with their tasks, with each attempting to kiss the protagonist before he encounters Sayori again. The protagonist can either confess to Sayori or friend zone her in this moment. Regardless, the following day, Monika passively shows the protagonist an uncharacteristically morbid poem by Sayori that insistently orders someone to "get out of her head". Realizing that something has happened to her, the protagonist rushes to Sayori's home where he discovers that she has hanged herself, and the game abruptly ends.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: The player is sent back to the main menu, with all previous save files corrupted and eventually deleted. The narrative repeats upon the start of a new game, but Sayori is glaringly absent and the characters do not remember her existence. Monika introduces the protagonist to the club in lieu of Sayori. Events proceed similarly to the original playthrough, but some text is rendered illegible, the character sprites appear corrupted from time to time, and what appear to be computer glitches or bugs become commonplace. Aside from the game's frequent distortions, it is revealed through dialogue and unlockable "special poems" that Natsuki is malnourished and being abused by her father, and Yuri gradually becomes unstable, obsessive, and prone to self-harm. When the planning stage for the cultural festival is reached, a heated quarrel over who the protagonist will help with the festival breaks out. After the player is forced to choose Monika, Yuri ejects her and Natsuki from the room and privately confesses her love for the protagonist. Whether or not the protagonist accepts Yuri's confession, she commits suicide by stabbing herself. The game's broken script forces the protagonist to stay and watch Yuri's corpse slowly decompose over the course of the weekend. When Natsuki returns upon the script resetting, she is horrified and nauseated at the sight of Yuri's body and flees the scene. Monika then appears and apologizes to the protagonist for the "boring" weekend he had spent, compensating by deleting Yuri and Natsuki's character files from existence and restarting the game.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: The protagonist is placed in what remains of the literature club classroom with Monika seated across from him. Monika reveals that she has become self-aware, having acquired the ability to manipulate the game's code after gaining sentience. Distraught at the fact that she is not a romance option but merely a supporting bystander, she used her ability to amplify her clubmates' negative traits in a futile attempt to make them unlikable and prevent their confessions of love for the protagonist. She then obsessively confesses her own love, not to the protagonist, but the player, because they are real and autonomous rather than programmed. Monika will sit and talk to the player indefinitely about various topics until the player manually enters the game's directory and deletes Monika's character file. Monika initially lashes out at the player as she disappears but ultimately forgives them and remorsefully repents by restoring the game and the characters excluding herself.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: Depending on the course of action taken by the player, the game can come to two possible conclusions during the epilogue. The traditional ending sees Sayori introducing herself as the president of the literature club and expressing her gratitude to the player for dispelling Monika. However, Sayori promptly adopts Monika's characteristics as the new club president. Monika intervenes via text prompt and removes Sayori from the game to save the player. Upon realizing that her efforts to make amends have been fruitless, Monika deletes the whole game as the end credits roll, while she plays a song called "Your Reality" that she wrote for the player. The game concludes with a note from Monika herself, stating that she has disbanded the literature club because "no happiness can be found" in it.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: A more positive ending occurs if the player has viewed all of the optional cutscenes and confessed to Sayori prior to witnessing her suicide, which requires saving and loading several times before that point. Though still self-aware, Sayori instead expresses her gratitude to the player for emotionally supporting all the club members, tearfully bids farewell, and assures the player that all the club members love them. Monika then plays "Your Reality" during the credits, albeit without deleting the game. After the game locks, the player is presented with a message from the game's developer, Dan Salvato, describing his intentions behind creating the game and his opinions on video games as a whole.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: An earlier ending occurs if the player preemptively deletes Monika's file from the directory before starting a new game. Sayori is subsequently made the default leader of the club. Upon realizing the true nature of the game and her role in it, Sayori panics and forcefully closes the game. Opening the game again will display an image of Sayori having hanged herself.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: In addition to the entire main story, "Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!" features six additional side stories, entitled "Trust", "Understanding", "Respect", "Balance", "Reflection", and "Self-Love", as well as an additional shorter seventh story, "Equals". The stories depict the meeting and relationships between the four club members, as well as the formation of the club up until the beginning of the main campaign, with each of the first six stories focusing on a conflict and resolution between two of the characters and the seventh focusing on the friendship between all four of them. Unlike the main campaign, the side stories do not feature any horror elements or discussion of sentience among any of the characters.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: Story-related content is accessible from within the virtual desktop in the form of an email inbox for a company referred to as "Metaverse Enterprise Solutions", as well as within the virtual desktop's file folder. Collecting this content tells of a group of researchers from the company who were attempting to utilize a virtual machine referred to as "VM1" to create a simulated universe. The resulting universe contained four entities, one of whom, "A", is granted elevated permissions to access the kernel code, referred to as "Monitor Kernel Access". The universe and entities are studied during events paralleling those of the game's main campaign, and the emails and files discuss the researcher's observations and monitoring of the events, with the stated goal being to observe how "A" would react to the discovery of their artificial existence, in order to analyze the possibility of the true universe being a simulation. Later discussion is given on the creation of a second "control" universe within VM1, in which "A" is not made aware of their elevated permissions, paralleling the events and settings of the side stories. It is later mentioned that a small group of researchers, who initially refer to themselves as "Team Salvation", plan to transform the contents of VM1 into a visual novel format in order to ensure security of the project, implying that the events of "Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!" depict the contents of both universes within VM1.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: The last unlockable emails describe a second virtual machine, "VM2", which the researchers successfully built but could not reliably access due to its instability. While they are unable to create a reliable connection to VM2, the researchers observe that the entities within VM2 appeared to be working on an undescribed project, referred to as "Project Libitina", which is implied to be an attempt by the entities at accessing the world beyond their simulated universe. If the player completes full "data collection", which requires completing all game content and unlocking all secrets, they are granted access to an eighth side story entitled "test.vm", which consists only of a screen describing a failed server attempt at accessing VM2, alongside one of several hundred different randomly-selected sentences, which appear to describe the world and activities within VM2's universe.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: "Doki Doki Literature Club!" was developed by American programmer Dan Salvato over the course of approximately two years, and is his debut title in the video game industry. Prior to its release, Salvato was known for creating the "FrankerFaceZ" extension for Twitch, his modding work in the "Super Smash Bros." scene, and for his custom "Super Mario Maker" levels. Salvato was inspired to create a visual novel by his "love-hate relationship" with anime, and emphasized the abundant use of clichés in the genre and the frequent plots centering around "cute girls doing cute things", which he saw as both an asset and a detriment to the viewer's enjoyment. Salvato sought to create a title that would attract the player's attention regardless of how they personally view anime.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: Discussing the horror elements of the game, Salvato explained that he was inspired by "things that are scary because they make you uncomfortable, not because they shove scary-looking things in your face." To achieve this, Salvato developed the façade of a cute setting, which would break down over time along with the behavior of the characters, and eventually the role of one evil character who had seized control of the game from the player would be revealed. In creating the game's horror elements, Salvato drew inspiration from "Yume Nikki" and "Eversion", and emphasized to his team that he wanted the market for visual novels to become much more daring and less reliant on the same plot concepts. The game's characters were based around standard anime archetypes and were given Japanese names to emphasize a pseudo-Japanese atmosphere characteristic of Western-produced visual novels. The sole exception to this format is Monika, who received an English name as a hint to her individual nature compared to the other characters.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: Because Salvato lacked artistic skill, he used a free online anime-creation program to create the initial character designs and applied these designs in test versions of the game. Salvato recognized that a product of such quality would not satisfy potential players, so he made a request to his friend, a translator for Sekai Project, for sketches of school uniforms and hairstyles for the characters. Salvato then handed initial visual development over to Kagefumi, who left the project very early on. After Kagefumi's departure from the project, Salvato contacted the freelance artist Satchely, who created the final character sprites over the course of a few months. The sprites were created in several parts to give the poses more variety. The background images were originally created as three-dimensional models, and then processed by the artist VelinquenT.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: Salvato also composed the game's score. The introductory composition, "Doki Doki Literature Club!", is primarily performed by piano and flute with accompaniment by string instruments. The composition "Okay, Everyone!" has five different versions, four of which are performed by different musical instruments that represent each of the four female characters. Monika's version emphasizes the piano, Yuri's version uses pizzicato and harps, Natsuki's version is played by xylophone and recorder, and Sayori's is played by ukulele. The game's score is generally calm and serene with the exception of two tracks, "Sayo-nara" and "Just Monika", which are ominous in tone. "Your Reality", a vocal song performed over the end credits, is sung by Jillian Ashcraft.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: "Doki Doki Literature Club!" was first released on September 22, 2017, on itch.io, and was later also released on Steam. The game is available as freeware with an optional pay what you want model. Paying a certain amount unlocks a bonus "Fan Pack" that includes desktop and mobile wallpapers, the game's official soundtrack, and a digital concept art booklet. The game's soundtrack was released on two compact discs respectively consisting of 15 and 10 tracks. The first CD contains all the main compositions of the game, while the second consists of remixes and alternative arrangements. On September 28, 2017, Dan Salvato posted an additional "Doki Doki Literature Club!" music soundtrack piece called "doki17.mp3" to the unofficial "Doki Doki Literature Club!" Discord server, referring to it as "an unfinished track that never made it into the game" which "[while] pretty far from finished [was] still somewhat pleasant". The soundtrack saw another release by iam8bit on "crimson smoke" vinyl in the first quarter of 2019.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: In January 2020, Salvato announced that new content would be added to "Doki Doki Literature Club!", but clarified that he was not making a sequel to the game. On June 11, 2021, Team Salvato and publisher Serenity Forge announced that a premium edition of "Doki Doki Literature Club!", titled "Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!", would be digitally released for the Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on June 30. A physical version for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 would also be sold via Serenity Forge's online store. On April 4, 2021, it was announced that PQube would distribute the physical edition of the game in Europe. On the day of the release of "Plus", it was announced that the game would be localized and released in Japan by Playism later that year.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: The expanded version features a visual upgrade to full high definition, six new side stories, 100 unlockable images, 13 new music tracks by Nikki Kaelar, Jason Hayes and Azuria Sky, and a music player with the option of creating customized playlists or repeating a single track in an indefinite loop. The side stories take place outside the original game's continuity and depict how the club members met and became friends. The game was ported from the original Ren'Py engine to Unity, which allowed the implementation of additional features, and consistent cross-platform development. Physical copies of "Plus!" were announced to be released on July 30, 2021, but was pushed back to the end of September, and later October, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: The game was received positively by critics, and accumulated a score of 78/100 on Metacritic based on 7 reviews.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: Steven T. Wright of "PC Gamer" described the game as "a post-modern love letter to the genre it represents", and compared its deconstructive quality to "Undertale" and "Pony Island". Robert Fenner of RPGFan noted that traditionally, major visual novel developers such as Key and 5pb. produced lengthy day-by-day narratives of a standard anime protagonist's relationships with their supporting cast. According to Fenner, previous attempts to revise the format, such as "Hatoful Boyfriend" and "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni", could not escape the conventions of their genre and fully reveal their dramatic potential. He then declared that "Doki Doki Literature Club!" had succeeded in this field by making unusual use of the Ren'Py engine and providing unexpected plot twists.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: Reviewers emphasized that the game achieves its surprising impact on the player due to its outward resemblance to typical eroge games: it has a pronounced anime style in its character design, and the game's goal is to develop a relationship with one of the characters. In addition, the characters consist of anime stereotypes whose behavior is sparsely displayed through their sprites, and the game's musical accompaniment is light, bouncy, gentle and playful. According to critics, these aspects combined to create the impression of a standard visual novel that would prompt the player to become attached to the characters. VisualNovelist of "Jeuxvideo.com" positively compared the game's visual quality to "Everlasting Summer", another independent visual novel with the appearance of a professional production. Reviewers pointed out that the game's horror was built on the destruction of a sense of control over what happens in the game and the feeling of helplessness that stems from the distortions in the game's world. Victoria Rose of "Polygon" stated that this approach was strikingly different from traditional horror games and films, where the viewer remains alienated from what is happening on the screen. Amy Josuweit of "Rock, Paper, Shotgun" noted that while earlier visual novels have broken the fourth wall by crashing the client or adding extra files, "Doki Doki Literature Club!" changed the angle by deliberately destroying files rather than adding them.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: "GQ"s Tom Philip commented that at times the narrative felt like "a slog, clicking through endless amounts of inane, flirty conversation about poetry." Fenner opined that the game did not pass the Bechdel test and positioned the protagonist as a seductive casanova. However, he emphasized that the plot is ultimately a "sharply aware polemic against harem anime/visual novels" in which "the lengths the ladies go to are not wholly because of the protagonist, but rather he can be read as a symptom—an easy outlet." Fenner also felt that the game, like "Katawa Shoujo" before it, "appears to veer dangerously close to fetishization of very real issues." Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of "The Escapist" described the game as "a nice little idea with a memorable moment or two," but added that the game "doesn't really have anywhere to go once the rabbit's out of the hat." Nevertheless, reviewers recognized the game's plot focus as successful and relevant. "8 Bit Rambles" stated that "Doki Doki Literature Club!" "revolves around love in its most demented and deconstructive form," and characterized the game as an example of postmodern art.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: The game has frequently been cited as a satire of the visual novel genre it depicts. Steven T. Wright for "Rock Paper Shotgun" noted that even as the pastel-tinged game universe splits apart at its very seams the game still "never turns its many knives on you, the player," instead choosing to self-destruct, "cracking open to reveal nothing but artifice." The game has also been viewed by many as a critique of dating simulators and of the people who play them, emphasized by a quote from the creator Dan Salvato, in which he mentions that he wanted to subvert the traditional visual novel stereotype of "cute girls doing cute things."


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: At "IGN" Best of 2017 Awards, the game won the People's Choice Award each for "Best PC Game", "Best Adventure Game" (for which it was also a runner-up), "Best Story", and "Most Innovative". IGN also featured "Doki Doki Literature Club!" on their list of the "18 Best Horror Games of 2017" and subsequently as the 12th scariest game of this generation. "Nerd Much?" included the game on their 2020 list of the "50 Scariest Horror Games of All Time." The game won the "Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award" and was nominated for "Trending Game of the Year" at the 2018 SXSW Gaming Awards. "EGMNow" ranked the game 16th in their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: In its first three months of release, "Doki Doki Literature Club!" was downloaded over one million times, and exceeded two million downloads about a month later. The game has inspired numerous fanmade mods, which are also made with the Ren'Py engine. The first fanmade mod for the game was "Monika After Story", a continuation and expanded version of the game's third act, which has since become one of the most popular mods. Another notable mod is "Doki Doki Blue Skies", which was also inspired by "Katawa Shoujo." Dan Salvato has reacted positively to the fanmade mods, stating "thanks to the Ren'Py engine, DDLC is excellent and highly accessible for modding, something we hope continues for years to come."


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: Monika was well-received by fans of the game, becoming one of the game's most popular characters, with several memes (such as "Just Monika") being made about her. Salvato was surprised by Monika's positive reception and massive popularity, stating that he did not expect her to get so popular.


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: Salvato criticized the "Trapsuki" meme, a theory that Natsuki is actually a "trap" (an anime character that looks like a girl but is actually a boy) due to her broad shoulders and small chest, calling the meme "really disrespectful" and stating he "doesn't like to joke about people's sex/gender, much less try to convince others that it's not what they think."


title: Doki Doki Literature Club!

text: On January 1, 2018, the main characters of "Doki Doki Literature Club!" were added to "Yandere Simulator" as character skins for the titular character, with Salvato's permission.


title: René Auberjonois

text: René Murat Auberjonois (; June 1, 1940 – December 8, 2019) was an American actor and director. He was best known for portraying Odo on "" (1993–1999). He first achieved fame as a stage actor, winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 1970 for his portrayal of Sebastian Baye opposite Katharine Hepburn in the André Previn-Alan Jay Lerner musical "Coco". He went on to earn three more Tony nominations for performances in Neil Simon's "The Good Doctor" (1973), Roger Miller's "Big River" (1985), and Cy Coleman's "City of Angels" (1989); he won a Drama Desk Award for "Big River".


title: René Auberjonois

text: A screen actor with more than 200 credits, Auberjonois was most famous for portraying characters in the main casts of several long-running television series, including Clayton Endicott III on "Benson" (1979–1986), for which he was an Emmy Award nominee, and Paul Lewiston on "Boston Legal" (2004–2008). In films, Auberjonois portrayed Father Mulcahy in the film version of "M*A*S*H" (1970); the expedition scientist Roy Bagley in "King Kong" (1976); Chef Louis in "The Little Mermaid" (1989), in which he sang "Les Poissons"; and Reverend Oliver in "The Patriot" (2000). In the American animated musical comedy film "Cats Don't Dance" (1997), Auberjonois voiced Flanagan.


title: René Auberjonois

text: Auberjonois performed as a voice actor in a number of popular video games. He provided the voice of Janos Audron in the "Legacy of Kain" series (2001–2003); the enigmatic Mr. House in "" (2010); Karl Schafer in the "Uncharted" video game series; and Odo in "Star Trek Online" (2018 expansion).


title: René Auberjonois

text: Auberjonois was born June 1, 1940 in New York City. His father, Swiss-born Fernand Auberjonois, was a Cold War-era foreign correspondent and Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer. Auberjonois' mother, Laure Louise Napoléone Eugénie Caroline Murat, was a great-great-granddaughter of Joachim Murat (one of Napoleon's marshals and King of Naples during the First French Empire), and his wife—Napoleon's youngest sister—Caroline Bonaparte. Auberjonois had a sister and a brother, and two half-sisters from his mother's first marriage. Auberjonois wrote that his French family name, an uncommon one in the United States, means "armorer."


title: René Auberjonois

text: Auberjonois' grandfather, also René Auberjonois, was a Swiss post-Impressionist painter. His maternal grandmother, Hélène Macdonald Stallo, was an American from Cincinnati, Ohio; his maternal grandfather's mother was a Russian noblewoman, Eudoxia Michailovna Somova, and his maternal grandfather's paternal grandmother, Caroline Georgina Fraser, who was the wife of Prince Napoleon Lucien Charles Murat, was an American from Charleston, South Carolina.


title: René Auberjonois

text: Auberjonois' family moved to Paris after World War II. After a few years in France, the family moved back to the United States and joined the South Mountain Road artists' colony in Rockland County, New York, whose residents included Burgess Meredith, John Houseman, and Lotte Lenya.


title: René Auberjonois

text: The Auberjonois family also lived for a time in London, where Auberjonois completed high school while studying theatre. To complete his education, he attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the College of Fine Arts in 1962.


title: René Auberjonois

text: After college, Auberjonois worked with several different theatre companies, beginning at the prestigious Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and then he traveled between Los Angeles, California, and New York, working in numerous theatre productions. He helped found the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music Repertory Company in New York City. He was a member of the Peninsula Players summer theater program during the 1962 season.


title: René Auberjonois

text: In 1968, Auberjonois landed a role on Broadway, and appeared in three plays that season: as Fool to Lee J. Cobb's "King Lear" (the longest running production of the play in Broadway history), as Ned in "A Cry of Players" (which played in repertory with King Lear), opposite Frank Langella, and as Marco in "Fire!" In 1969, he earned a Tony Award for his performance as Sebastian Baye alongside Katharine Hepburn in "Coco".


title: René Auberjonois

text: He received Tony nominations for his roles in Neil Simon's "The Good Doctor" (1973) opposite Christopher Plummer; as the Duke in "Big River" (1984), winning a Drama Desk Award; and, memorably, as Buddy Fidler/Irwin S. Irving in "City of Angels" (1989), written by Larry Gelbart and Cy Coleman.


title: René Auberjonois

text: Auberjonois' other Broadway appearances included Malvolio in "Twelfth Night" (1972); Scapin in "Tricks" (1973); Mr. Samsa in "Metamorphosis" (1989); Professor Abronsius in "Dance of the Vampires", the English-language version of Jim Steinman's musical adaptation of "Tanz der Vampire"; and Jethro Crouch in "Sly Fox" (2004), for which he was nominated for Outstanding Featured Actor In A Play, an Outer Critics Circle Award.


title: René Auberjonois

text: Auberjonois appeared many times at the Mark Taper Forum, notably as Malvolio in "Twelfth Night" and as Stanislavski in "Chekhov in Yalta". As a member of the Second Drama Quartet, he toured with Ed Asner, Dianne Wiest, and Harris Yulin. He appeared in the Tom Stoppard and André Previn work, "Every Good Boy Deserves Favor", at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Opera in New York.


title: René Auberjonois

text: He directed many theatrical productions, and starred in the Washington, D.C. production of "12 Angry Men" (2004), where he portrayed "Juror #5" to Roy Scheider's "#8" and Robert Prosky's "#3". He made his debut at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. in 2008 as the titular character in Molière's "The Imaginary Invalid".


title: René Auberjonois

text: He was on the advisory board of Sci-Fest LA, the first annual Los Angeles Science Fiction One-Act Play Festival, held in May 2014.


title: René Auberjonois

text: Auberjonois played Father Mulcahy in the original film version of "M*A*S*H". His subsequent film roles included the gangster Tony in "" (1988), and Reverend Oliver in "The Patriot" (2000). He made cameo appearances in a number of films, including: Dr. Burton, a mental asylum doctor patterned after Tim Burton, in "Batman Forever" (1995), and a bird expert who gradually transforms into a bird in Robert Altman's 1970 film "Brewster McCloud". He appeared as Colonel West in the 1991 "Star Trek" film "". His other notable film appearances include; "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" (1971), "Images "(1972), "Pete 'n' Tillie" (1972), "The Hindenburg" (1975), "King Kong" (1976), "The Big Bus" (1976), "Eyes of Laura Mars" (1978), "Where the Buffalo Roam" (1980), "Walker" (1987), "My Best Friend Is a Vampire" (1987), "The Feud" (1989), "Inspector Gadget" (1999), and "Eulogy" (2004).


title: René Auberjonois

text: Auberjonois portrayed the character of Straight Hollander in the 1993 Miramax film "The Ballad of Little Jo". He voiced Professor Genius in "", Louis the Chef in the 1st and "Little Mermaid" films, Flanagan in "Cats Don't Dance", the Butler in "", and the concierge in "".


title: René Auberjonois

text: In 2019, Auberjonois portrayed the title role in "Raising Buchanan" as mediocre U.S. president James Buchanan.


title: René Auberjonois

text: In addition to having been a regular actor on three television shows ("Benson", a situation comedy; "" in science fiction; and "Boston Legal", a legal comedy drama), Auberjonois guest starred on many television series, including; "Nash Bridges", "Ellery Queen", "Family", "Grey's Anatomy", "The Rockford Files", "Charlie's Angels", "Starsky & Hutch", "Wonder Woman", "Harry O", "The Jeffersons", "The Outer Limits", "Night Gallery", "Hart to Hart", "Matlock", "Murder, She Wrote", "The Bionic Woman", "Frasier", "Judging Amy", "Chicago Hope", "The Bob Newhart Show", "", "Stargate SG-1", "Warehouse 13", "Archer", "L.A. Law", "The Practice" (for which he received an Emmy nomination, playing a different character than the one he played on "The Practice" spinoff "Boston Legal"), "Saving Grace", "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", "Criminal Minds", "NCIS", "The Good Wife", "The Librarians", and "Madam Secretary".


title: René Auberjonois

text: His television movie credits include "The Rhinemann Exchange", "The Dark Secret of Harvest Home", Disney's "Geppetto", Gore Vidal's "Billy The Kid", the remake of "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", and the "Sally Hemings: An American Scandal" (2000) miniseries. He portrayed the character Fortunato in an episode of "American Masters" entitled "Edgar Allan Poe: Terror of the Soul" (1995). He received a third Emmy Award nomination for his performance in ABC's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". He played NASA scientist Dr. Felix Blackwell in the episode "Phoenix" on "NCIS".


title: René Auberjonois

text: Auberjonois voiced animated roles, including characters on "Snorks", "", Leonard McLeish on "Pound Puppies" (2010), "", Master Fung in the first episodes of "Xiaolin Showdown" (before being replaced by Maurice LaMarche), Azmuth on "", Renard Dumont on "The Legend of Tarzan", "Justice League Unlimited", "Max Steel", "Fantastic Max", "Challenge of the GoBots" (as the treacherous "Dr. Braxis"), "Archer", "Young Justice", "Random! Cartoons", and "Avengers Assemble". He lent his voice talents to the 2001 Public Broadcasting System (PBS) "American Experience" documentary "Woodrow Wilson" as the title character, along with the 2003 PBS historical documentary "".


title: René Auberjonois

text: Auberjonois directed television shows, including "Marblehead Manor", and various episodes of "Deep Space Nine".


title: René Auberjonois

text: Auberjonois was active in radio drama. He read "The Stunt" by Mordechai Strigler for the National Public Radio (NPR) series "Jewish Stories From the Old World to the New", and he recorded novels on tape. On PRI, he was featured numerous times on "Selected Shorts", reading works of dramatic fiction. His voice was heard in Disney's "The Little Mermaid" (receiving alphabetical top billing as Louis the Chef and singing "Les Poissons"), and as The Skull in "The Last Unicorn".


title: René Auberjonois

text: He did voice work on the "Challenge of the GoBots" series in 1980s as Dr. Braxis, He was the voice of Peter Parker on the 1972 Buddah Records Spider-Man LP "From Beyond the Grave" (BDS 5119), a radio-style narrative replete with sound effects and rock and roll song interludes provided by "The Webspinners", in which the characters of The Vulture, The Lizard, Green Goblin, The Kingpin, Aunt May and Doctor Strange appeared.


title: René Auberjonois

text: In 1984–1985, he lent his voice to DeSaad, an associate of the villainous Darkseid on the animated series "Super Friends". From 1986 to 1987, he voiced Alvinar in the cartoons series "Wildfire". He also provided the voice of Professor Genius in "".


title: René Auberjonois

text: He provided the voice for Janos Audron, an ancient vampire in the "Legacy of Kain" video game series; he was in "Soul Reaver 2", "Blood Omen 2", and "". He provided the voice of Angler in the "" video game. He voice-played General Zod in the Joseph Ruby-Kenneth Spears animated "Superman" series episode titled "The Hunter".


title: René Auberjonois

text: Auberjonois provided minor character voices for "Justice League", reprising his role as Desaad, and parts such as 2003's "In Blackest Night," as Kanjar-Ro, a pirate testifying in the trial of the Green Lantern, and as a fellow member of the Green Lantern Corps in other episodes.


title: René Auberjonois

text: In 2003, he provided the voice of Natori in the English dubbed version of semi-sequel to the Hayao Miyazaki film "Whisper of the Heart", "The Cat Returns". He reprised an animated version of his character Odo from "" in a cutaway joke in "Family Guy"s "". The cutaway featured a more humanoid-faced Odo threatening Stewie's alleged cousin Quark Griffin. Auberjonois also lent his voice to "".


title: René Auberjonois

text: In 2011, he voiced villain Mark Desmond in Cartoon Network's "Young Justice". He was also the voice of Leonard McLeish in the "Pound Puppies" series, Pepé Le Pew in 2011 on "The Looney Tunes Show", Azmuth in "Ben 10: Omniverse", and Ebony Maw in "Avengers Assemble".


title: René Auberjonois

text: One of Auberjonois' earliest forays into video game voice acting was the role of Janos Audron in "Soul Reaver 2"; he continued to voice the character in subsequent releases in the "Legacy of Kain" series. According to a behind-the-scenes featurette in "Soul Reaver 2", showing candid discussions among the voice actors during recording, he was surprised at the quality of the writing, asking, "This is for a video game?!" when the purpose of the recordings was brought to light.


title: René Auberjonois

text: Auberjonois provided the voice of Karl Schäfer, the honourable German explorer in the video game "", and Mr. House, the reclusive New Vegas casino owner in the 2010 video game "". He also voiced Dr. Ignatio Mobius in "". He reprised his role as Odo in the game "". In June, 2018 he reprised his role as Odo in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game "Star Trek Online".


title: René Auberjonois

text: Auberjonois was married to his wife Judith Mihalyi from 1963 until his death in 2019. They had two children, Tessa and Remy.


title: René Auberjonois

text: In an interview with "Compassion & Choices Magazine", Judith Auberjonois revealed that René underwent chemotherapy for lung cancer in 2018. It was discovered in 2019 that the cancer had spread to his brain. Due to the potential for serious cognitive side effects, Auberjonois chose not to pursue the whole-brain radiation treatment suggested by his doctors.


title: René Auberjonois

text: As a resident of California, Auberjonois decided to seek medical aid in dying under the California End of Life Option Act. On December 6, 2019, he spent his final hours with his family at his home in Los Angeles reminiscing over photos and listening to music. He then took the medication prescribed for assisted suicide and died at the age of 79. The California End of Life Option Act stipulates that death certificates should list the underlying terminal illness as the cause of death, rather than the use of life-ending medications. His cause of death was given as metastatic lung cancer.


title: Homunculus

text: A homunculus ( , , ; "little person") is a representation of a small human being, originally depicted as small statues made out of clay. Popularized in sixteenth-century alchemy and nineteenth-century fiction, it has historically referred to the creation of a miniature, fully formed human. The concept has roots in preformationism as well as earlier folklore and alchemic traditions.


title: Homunculus

text: The term lends its name to the cortical homunculus, an image of a person with the size of the body parts distorted to represent how much area of the cerebral cortex of the brain is devoted to it.


title: Homunculus

text: The homunculus first appears by name in alchemical writings attributed to Paracelsus (1493–1541). "De natura rerum" (1537) outlines his method for creating homunculi:


title: Homunculus

text: Comparisons have been made with several similar concepts in the writings of earlier alchemists. Although the actual word "homunculus" was never used, Carl Jung believed that the concept first appeared in the "Visions of Zosimos", written in the third century AD. In the visions, Zosimos encounters a priest who changes into "the opposite of himself, into a mutilated "anthroparion"". The Greek word "anthroparion" is similar to "homunculus" – a diminutive form of "person". Zosimos subsequently encounters other anthroparia in his dream but there is no mention of the creation of artificial life. In his commentary, Jung equates the homunculus with the Philosopher's Stone, and the "inner person" in parallel with Christ.


title: Homunculus

text: In Islamic alchemy, "takwin" () was a goal of certain Muslim alchemists, and is frequently found in writings of the Jabirian corpus. In the alchemical context, "takwin" refers to the artificial creation of life, spanning the full range of the chain of being, from minerals to prophets, imitating the function of the demiurge. One set of instructions for creating animal life found within the Jabirian "Kitab al-Tajmi" involves finding a vessel shaped like the animal and combining the animal's bodily fluids within it, then placing the vessel at the center of a model of a celestial sphere as heat is applied to it. Some of the alchemists believed that these methods originated somewhere in India or Southeast Asia.


title: Homunculus

text: The homunculus continued to appear in alchemical writings after Paracelsus' time. The "Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz" (1616) for example, concludes with the creation of a male and female form identified as "Homunculi duo". The allegorical text suggests to the reader that the ultimate goal of alchemy is not chrysopoeia, but it is instead the artificial generation of humans. Here, the creation of homunculi symbolically represents spiritual regeneration and Christian soteriology.


title: Homunculus

text: In 1775, Count Johann Ferdinand von Kufstein, together with Abbé Geloni, an Italian cleric, is reputed to have created ten homunculi with the ability to foresee the future, which von Kufstein kept in glass containers at his Masonic lodge in Vienna. Dr. Emil Besetzny's Masonic handbook, "Die Sphinx", devoted an entire chapter to the "wahrsagenden Geister" (scrying ghosts). These are reputed to have been seen by several people, including local dignitaries.


title: Homunculus

text: References to the homunculus do not appear prior to sixteenth-century alchemical writings but alchemists may have been influenced by earlier folk traditions. The mandragora, known in German as "Alreona", "Alraun" or "Alraune" is one example; Jean-Baptiste Pitois's "The History and Practice of Magic" makes a direct comparison to the mandragora in one excerpt:


title: Homunculus

text: The homunculus has also been compared to the golem of Jewish folklore. Though the specifics outlining the creation of the golem and homunculus are very different, the concepts both metaphorically relate man to the divine, in his construction of life in his own image.


title: Homunculus

text: Preformationism is the formerly popular theory that animals developed from miniature versions of themselves. Sperm were believed to contain complete preformed individuals called "animalcules". Development was therefore a matter of enlarging this into a fully formed being. The term homunculus was later used in the discussion of conception and birth.


title: Homunculus

text: Nicolas Hartsoeker postulated the existence of animalcules in the semen of humans and other animals. This was the beginning of spermists' theory, which held that the sperm was in fact a "little man" that was placed inside a woman for growth into a child, a neat explanation for many of the mysteries of conception. It was later pointed out that if the sperm was a homunculus, identical in all but size to an adult, then the homunculus may have sperm of its own. This led to a "reductio ad absurdum" with a chain of homunculi "all the way down". This was not necessarily considered by spermists a fatal objection, however, as it neatly explained how it was that "in Adam" all had sinned: the whole of humanity was already contained in his loins. The spermists' theory also failed to explain why children tend to resemble their mothers as well as their fathers, though some spermists believed that the growing homunculus assimilated maternal characteristics from the womb.


title: Homunculus

text: The homunculus is commonly used today in scientific disciplines such as psychology as a teaching or memory tool to describe the distorted scale model of a human drawn or sculpted to reflect the relative space human body parts occupy on the somatosensory cortex (the "sensory homunculus") and the motor cortex (the "motor homunculus"). Both the motor and sensory homunculi usually appear as small men superimposed over the top of precentral or postcentral gyri for motor and sensory cortices, respectively. The homunculus is oriented with feet medial and shoulders lateral on top of both the precentral and the postcentral gyrus (for both motor and sensory). The man's head is depicted upside down in relation to the rest of the body such that the forehead is closest to the shoulders. The lips, hands, feet and sex organs have more sensory neurons than other parts of the body, so the homunculus has correspondingly large lips, hands, feet, and genitals. The motor homunculus is very similar to the sensory homunculus, but differs in several ways. Specifically, the motor homunculus has a portion for the tongue most lateral while the sensory homunculus has an area for genitalia most medial and an area for visceral organs most lateral. Well known in the field of neurology, this is also commonly called "the little man inside the brain". This scientific model is known as the cortical homunculus.


title: Homunculus

text: In medical science, the term homunculus is sometimes applied to certain fetus-like ovarian cystic teratomae. These will sometimes contain hair, sebaceous material and in some cases cartilagous or bony structures.


title: Homunculus

text: In a recent article published in the peer reviewed journal Leonardo "The Missing Female Homunculus” by Haven Wright and Preston Foerder revisits the history of the Homunculus, sheds light on current research in neuroscience on the female brain, and reveals what they believe to be the first sculpture of the female Homunculus, done by the artist and first author Haven Wright, based on the current research available.


title: Homunculus

text: Homunculi can be found in centuries worth of literature. These fictions are primarily centred around imaginative speculations on the quest for artificial life associated with Paracelsian alchemy. One of the very earliest literary references occurs in Thomas Browne's "Religio Medici" (1643), in which the author states:


title: Homunculus

text: The fable of the alchemically-created homunculus may have been central in Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein" (1818). Professor Radu Florescu suggests that Johann Konrad Dippel, an alchemist born in Castle Frankenstein, might have been the inspiration for Victor Frankenstein. German playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "Faust, Part Two" (1832) famously features an alchemically-created homunculus. Here, the character of Homunculus embodies the quest of a pure spirit to be born into a mortal form, contrasting Faust's desire to shed his mortal body to become pure spirit. The alchemical idea that the soul is not imprisoned in the body, but instead may find its brightest state as it passes through the material plane, is central to the character.


title: Homunculus

text: The homunculus legend, "Frankenstein" and "Faust" have continued to influence works in the twentieth and twenty-first century. The theme has been used not only in fantasy literature, but also to illuminate social topics. For instance, the British children's writers Mary Norton and Rumer Godden used homunculus motifs in their work, expressing various post-war anxieties about refugees, persecution of minorities in war, and the adaptation of these minorities to a "big" world. W. Somerset Maugham's 1908 novel "The Magician" utilises the concept of the homunculus as an important plot element. David H. Keller’s short story "A Twentieth-Century Homunculus" (1930) describes the creation of homunculi on an industrial scale by a pair of misogynists. Likewise, Sven Delblanc’s "The Homunculus: A Magic Tale" (1965) addresses alleged misogyny and the Cold War industrial-military complexes of the Soviet Union and NATO. In German children's author Cornelia Funke's book, "Dragon Rider", the protagonists meet and are aided by a homunculus created by an alchemist. The homunculus, and alchemy broadly, is seen as more of a magical phenomenon in the story, however, rather than necessarily having a symbolic meaning.


title: Homunculus

text: Homunculi appear in fantasy based television, film, and games in a manner consistent with literature. Examples can be found in numerous mediums, such as the podcast "Hello From The Magic Tavern," the films "Homunculus" (1916), "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935), "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" (1973), the made-for-television movie "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" (1973) and its (2011) theatrical remake, "Being John Malkovich" (1999), Guillermo del Toro's "The Devil's Backbone" (2001), "Fullmetal Alchemist" (2001), Shane Acker's "9" (2009), Philipp Humm's "The Last Faust" (2019), television shows (such as "Bloodfeast") and "American Dad", fantasy role-playing games (such as "Dungeons & Dragons"), video games (such as "Ragnarok Online", "Valkyrie Profile", " Shadow of Memories", "The Legend of Heroes" series, and ""), books (such as "The Secret Series" and "Sword of Destiny" or "Seventy-Two Letters" by Ted Chiang), graphic novels (such as "Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense") and manga (such as "Homunculus, "Stone Ocean, "Fullmetal Alchemist", "", "Sorcerous Stabber Orphen", "Fate/Zero", and "Gosick").


title: Yerevan

text: Yerevan ( , , , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country, as its primate city. It has been the capital since 1918, the fourteenth in the history of Armenia and the seventh located in or around the Ararat Plain. The city also serves as the seat of the Araratian Pontifical Diocese, which is the largest diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church and one of the oldest dioceses in the world.


title: Yerevan

text: The history of Yerevan dates back to the 8th century BCE, with the founding of the fortress of Erebuni in 782 BCE by King Argishti I of Urartu at the western extreme of the Ararat Plain. Erebuni was "designed as a great administrative and religious centre, a fully royal capital." By the late ancient Armenian Kingdom, new capital cities were established and Yerevan declined in importance. Under Iranian and Russian rule, it was the center of the Erivan Khanate from 1736 to 1828 and the Erivan Governorate from 1850 to 1917, respectively. After World War I, Yerevan became the capital of the First Republic of Armenia as thousands of survivors of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire arrived in the area. The city expanded rapidly during the 20th century while Armenia was a part of the Soviet Union. In a few decades, Yerevan was transformed from a provincial town within the Russian Empire to Armenia's principal cultural, artistic, and industrial center, as well as becoming the seat of national government.


title: Yerevan

text: With the growth of the Armenian economy, Yerevan has undergone major transformation. Much construction has been done throughout the city since the early 2000s, and retail outlets such as restaurants, shops, and street cafés, which were rare during Soviet times, have multiplied. , the population of Yerevan was 1,060,138, just over 35% of Armenia's total population. According to the official estimate of 2022, the current population of the city is 1,092,800. Yerevan was named the 2012 World Book Capital by UNESCO. Yerevan is an associate member of Eurocities.


title: Yerevan

text: Of the notable landmarks of Yerevan, Erebuni Fortress is considered to be the birthplace of the city, the Katoghike Tsiranavor church is the oldest surviving church of Yerevan and Saint Gregory Cathedral is the largest Armenian cathedral in the world, Tsitsernakaberd is the official memorial to the victims of the Armenian genocide. The city is home to several opera houses, theatres, museums, libraries, and other cultural institutions. Yerevan Opera Theatre is the main spectacle hall of the Armenian capital, the National Gallery of Armenia is the largest art museum in Armenia and shares a building with the History Museum of Armenia, and the Matenadaran repository contains one of the largest depositories of ancient books and manuscripts in the world.


title: Yerevan

text: One theory regarding the origin of Yerevan's name is the city was named after the Armenian king, Yervand (Orontes) IV, the last ruler of Armenia from the Orontid dynasty, and founder of the city of Yervandashat. However, it is likely that the city's name is derived from the Urartian military fortress of Erebuni (Էրեբունի), which was founded on the territory of modern-day Yerevan in 782 BCE by Argishti I. "Erebuni" may derive from the Urartian word for "to take" or "to capture," meaning that the fortress's name could be interpreted as "capture," "conquest," or "victory." As elements of the Urartian language blended with that of the Armenian one, the name eventually evolved into "Yerevan" (Erebuni = Erevani = Erevan = Yerevan). Scholar Margarit Israelyan notes these changes when comparing inscriptions found on two cuneiform tablets at Erebuni:


title: Yerevan

text: Early Christian Armenian chroniclers connected the origin of the city's name to the legend of Noah's Ark. After the ark had landed on Mount Ararat and the flood waters had receded, Noah, while looking in the direction of Yerevan, is said to have exclaimed "Yerevats!" ("it appeared!" in Armenian), from which originated the name Yerevan.


title: Yerevan

text: In the late medieval and early modern periods, when Yerevan was under Turkic and later Persian rule, the city was known in Persian as "Iravân" (). The city was officially known as Erivan () under Russian rule during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The city was renamed back to Yerevan (Ереван) in 1936. Up until the mid-1970s the city's name was spelled Erevan more often than Yerevan in English sources.


title: Yerevan

text: The principal symbol of Yerevan is Mount Ararat, which is visible from any area in the capital. The seal of the city is a crowned lion on a pedestal with a shield that has a depiction of Mount Ararat on the upper part and half of an Armenian eternity sign on the bottom part. The emblem is a rectangular shield with a blue border.


title: Yerevan

text: On 27 September 2004, Yerevan adopted an anthem, "Erebuni-Yerevan", using lyrics written by Paruyr Sevak and set to music composed by Edgar Hovhannisyan. It was selected in a competition for a new anthem and new flag that would best represent the city. The chosen flag has a white background with the city's seal in the middle, surrounded by twelve small red triangles that symbolize the twelve historic capitals of Armenia. The flag includes the three colours of the Armenian National flag. The lion is portrayed on the orange background with blue edging.


title: Yerevan

text: The territory of Yerevan has been inhabited since approximately the 2nd half of the 4th millennium BCE. The southern part of the city currently known as Shengavit has been populated since at least 3200 BCE, during the period of Kura–Araxes culture of the early Bronze Age. The first excavations at the Shengavit historical site was conducted between 1936 and 1938 under the guidance of archaeologist "Yevgeny Bayburdyan". After two decades, archaeologist "Sandro Sardarian" resumed the excavations starting from 1958 until 1983. The 3rd phase of the excavations started in 2000, under the guidance of archaeologist "Hakob Simonyan". In 2009, Simonyan was joined by professor Mitchell S. Rothman from the Widener University of Pennsylvania. Together they conducted three series of excavations in 2009, 2010, and 2012 respectively. During the process, a full stratigraphic column to bedrock was reached, showing there to be 8 or 9 distinct stratigraphic levels. These levels cover a time between 3200 BCE and 2500 BCE. Evidences of later use of the site, possibly until 2200 BCE, were also found. The excavation process revealed a series of large round buildings with square adjoining rooms and minor round buildings. A series of ritual installations was discovered in 2010 and 2012.


title: Yerevan

text: The ancient kingdom of Urartu was formed in the 9th century BCE by King Arame in the basin of Lake Van of the Armenian Highland, including the territory of modern-day Yerevan. Archaeological evidence, such as a cuneiform inscription, indicates that the Urartian military fortress of "Erebuni" (Էրեբունի) was founded in 782 BCE by the orders of King Argishti I at the site of modern-day Yerevan, to serve as a fort and citadel guarding against attacks from the north Caucasus. The cuneiform inscription found at Erebuni Fortress reads:


title: Yerevan

text: During the height of the Urartian power, irrigation canals and artificial reservoirs were built in Erebuni and its surrounding territories.


title: Yerevan

text: In the mid-7th century BCE, the city of Teishebaini was built by Rusa II of Urartu, around west of Erebuni Fortress. It was fortified on a hill -currently known as Karmir Blur within Shengavit District of Yerevan- to protect the eastern borders of Urartu from the barbaric Cimmerians and Scythians. During excavations, the remains of a governors palace that contained a hundred and twenty rooms spreading across more than was found, along with a citadel dedicated to the Urartian god Teisheba. The construction of the city of Teishebaini, as well as the palace and the citadel was completed by the end of the 7th century BCE, during the reign of Rusa III. However, Teishebaini was destroyed by an alliance of Medes and the Scythians in 585 BCE.


title: Yerevan

text: In 590 BCE, following the fall of the Kingdom of Urartu by the hands of the Iranian Medes, Erebuni along with the Armenian Highland became part of the Median Empire.


title: Yerevan

text: However, in 550 BCE, the Median Empire was conquered by Cyrus the Great, and Erebuni became part of the Achaemenid Empire. Between 522 BCE and 331 BCE, Erebuni was one of the main centers of the Satrapy of Armenia, a region controlled by the Orontid Dynasty as one of the satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire. The Satrapy of Armenia was divided into two parts: the northern part and the southern part, with the cities of Erebuni (Yerevan) and Tushpa (Van) as their centres, respectively.


title: Yerevan

text: Coins issued in 478 BCE along with many other items found in the Erebuni Fortress, reveal the importance of Erebuni as a major centre for trade under Achaemenid rule.


title: Yerevan

text: During the victorious period of Alexander the Great, and following the decline of the Achaemenid Empire, the Orontid rulers of the Armenian Satrapy achieved independence as a result of the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BCE, founding the Kingdom of Armenia. With the establishment of new cities such as Armavir, Zarehavan, Bagaran and Yervandashat, the importance of Erebuni had gradually declined.


title: Yerevan

text: With the rise of the Artaxiad dynasty of Armenia who seized power in 189 BCE, the Kingdom of Armenia greatly expanded to include major territories of Asia Minor, Atropatene, Iberia, Phoenicia and Syria. The Artaxiads considered Erebuni and Tushpa as cities of Persian heritage. Consequently, new cities and commercial centres were built by Kings Artaxias I, Artavasdes I and Tigranes the Great. Thus, with the dominance of cities such as Artaxata and Tigranocerta, Erebuni had significantly lost its importance as a central city.


title: Yerevan

text: Under the rule of the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia (54–428 AD), many other cities around Erebuni including Vagharshapat and Dvin flourished. Consequently, Erebuni was completely neutralized, losing its role as an economic and strategic centre of Armenia. During the period of the Arsacid kings, Erebuni was only recorded in a Manichaean text of the 3rd century, where it is mentioned that one of the disciples of the prophet Mani founded a Manichaean community near the Christian community in Erebuni.


title: Yerevan

text: According to "Ashkharatsuyts", Erebuni was part of the Kotayk canton (Կոտայք գավառ, "Kotayk gavar", not to be confused with the current Kotayk Province) of Ayrarat province, within Armenia Major.


title: Yerevan

text: Armenia became a Christian nation in the early 4th century, during the reign of the Arsacid king Tiridates III.


title: Yerevan

text: Following the partition of Armenia by the Byzantine and Sasanian empires in 387 and in 428, Erebuni and the entire territory of Eastern Armenia came under the rule of Sasanian Persia. The Armenian territories formed the province of Persian Armenia within the Sasanian Empire.


title: Yerevan

text: Due to the diminished role of Erebuni, as well as the absence of proper historical data, much of the city's history under the Sasanian rule is unknown.


title: Yerevan

text: In 587 during the reign of emperor Maurice, Yerevan and much of Armenia came under Roman administration after the Romans defeated the Sassanid Persian Empire at the battle of the Blarathon. Soon after, Katoghike Tsiranavor Church in Avan was built between 595 and 602. Despite being partly damaged during the 1679 earthquake), it is the oldest surviving church within modern Yerevan city limits.


title: Yerevan

text: The province of Persian Armenia (also known as Persarmenia) lasted until 646, when the province was dissolved with the Muslim conquest of Persia.


title: Yerevan

text: In 658 AD, at the height of the Arab Islamic invasions, Erebuni-Yerevan was conquered during the Muslim conquest of Persia, as it was part of Persian-ruled Armenia. The city became part of the Emirate of Armenia under the Umayyad Caliphate. The city of Dvin was the centre of the newly created emirate. Starting from this period, as a result of the developing trade activities with the Arabs, the Armenian territories had gained strategic importance as a crossroads for the Arab caravan routes passing between Europe and India through the Arab-controlled Ararat Plain of Armenia. Most probably, "Erebuni" has become known as "Yerevan" since at least the 7th century AD.


title: Yerevan

text: After 2 centuries of Islamic rule over Armenia, the Bagratid prince Ashot I of Armenia led the revolution against the Abbasid Caliphate. Ashot I liberated Yerevan in 850, and was recognized as the Prince of Princes of Armenia by the Abbasid Caliph al-Musta'in in 862. Ashot was later crowned King of Armenia through the consent of Caliph al-Mu'tamid in 885. During the rule of the Bagratuni dynasty of Armenia between 885 and 1045, Yerevan was relatively a secure part of the Kingdom before falling to the Byzantines.


title: Yerevan

text: However, Yerevan did not have any strategic role during the reign of the Bagratids, who developed many other cities of Ayrarat, such as Shirakavan, Dvin, and Ani.


title: Yerevan

text: After a brief Byzantine rule over Armenia between 1045 and 1064, the invading Seljuks -led by Tughril and later by his successor Alp Arslan- ruled over the entire region, including Yerevan. However, with the establishment of the Zakarid Principality of Armenia in 1201 under the Georgian protectorate, the Armenian territories of Yerevan and Lori had significantly grown. After the Mongols captured Ani in 1236, Armenia turned into a Mongol protectorate as part of the Ilkhanate, and the Zakarids became vassals to the Mongols. After the fall of the Ilkhanate in the mid-14th century, the Zakarid princes ruled over Lori, Shirak and the Ararat Plain until 1360 when they fell to the invading Turkic tribes.


title: Yerevan

text: During the last quarter of the 14th century, the Aq Qoyunlu Sunni Oghuz Turkic tribe took over Armenia, including Yerevan. In 1400, Timur invaded Armenia and Georgia, and captured more than 60,000 of the survived local people as slaves. Many districts including Yerevan were depopulated.


title: Yerevan

text: In 1410, Armenia fell under the control of the Kara Koyunlu Shia Oghuz Turkic tribe. According to the Armenian historian Thomas of Metsoph, although the Kara Koyunlu levied heavy taxes against the Armenians, the early years of their rule were relatively peaceful and some reconstruction of towns took place. The Kara Koyunlus made Yerevan the centre of the newly formed "Chukhur Saad" administrative territory. The territory was named after a Turkic leader known as "Emir Saad".


title: Yerevan

text: However, this peaceful period was shattered with the rise of Qara Iskander between 1420 and 1436, who reportedly made Armenia a "desert" and subjected it to "devastation and plunder, to slaughter, and captivity". The wars of Iskander and his eventual defeat against the Timurids, invited further destruction in Armenia, as many more Armenians were taken captive and sold into slavery and the land was subjected to outright pillaging, forcing many of them to leave the region.


title: Yerevan

text: Following the fall of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia in 1375, the seat of the Armenian Church was transferred from Sis back to Vagharshapat near Yerevan in 1441. Thus, Yerevan became the main economic, cultural and administrative centre in Armenia.


title: Yerevan

text: In 1501–02, most of the Eastern Armenian territories including Yerevan were swiftly conquered by the emerging Safavid dynasty of Iran led by Shah Ismail I. Soon after in 1502, Yerevan became the centre of the Erivan Province, a new administrative territory of Iran formed by the Safavids. For the following 3 centuries, it remained, with brief intermissions, under the Iranian rule. Due to its strategic significance, Yerevan was initially often fought over, and passed back and forth, between the dominion of the rivaling Iranian and Ottoman Empire, until it permanently became controlled by the Safavids. In 1555, Iran had secured its legitimate possession over Yerevan with the Ottomans through the Treaty of Amasya.


title: Yerevan

text: In 1582–1583, the Ottomans led by Serdar Ferhad Pasha took brief control over Yerevan. Ferhad Pasha managed to build the Erivan Fortress on the ruins of one thousand-years old ancient Armenian fortress, on the shores of Hrazdan river. However, Ottoman control ended in 1604 when the Persians regained Yerevan as a result of first Ottoman-Safavid War.


title: Yerevan

text: Shah Abbas I of Persia who ruled between 1588 and 1629, ordered the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Armenians including citizens from Yerevan to mainland Persia. As a consequence, Yerevan significantly lost its Armenian population who had declined to 20%, while Muslims including Persians, Turks, Kurds and Tatars gained dominance with around 80% of the city's population. Muslims were either sedentary, semi-sedentary, or nomadic. Armenians mainly occupied the Kond neighbourhood of Yerevan and the rural suburbs around the city. However, the Armenians dominated over various professions and trade in the area and were of great economic significance to the Persian administration.


title: Yerevan

text: During the second Ottoman-Safavid War, Ottoman troops under the command of Sultan Murad IV conquered the city on 8 August 1635. Returning in triumph to Constantinople, he opened the "Yerevan Kiosk" ("Revan Köşkü") in Topkapı Palace in 1636. However, Iranian troops commanded by Shah Safi retook Yerevan on 1 April 1636. As a result of the Treaty of Zuhab in 1639, the Iranians reconfirmed their control over Eastern Armenia, including Yerevan. On 7 June 1679, a devastating earthquake razed the city to the ground.


title: Yerevan

text: In 1724, the Erivan Fortress was besieged by the Ottoman army. After a period of resistance, the fortress fell to the Turks. As a result of the Ottoman invasion, the Erivan Province of the Safavids was dissolved.


title: Yerevan

text: Following a brief period of Ottoman rule over Eastern Armenia between 1724 and 1736, and as a result of the fall of the Safavid dynasty in 1736, Yerevan along with the adjacent territories became part of the newly formed administrative territory of Erivan Khanate under the Afsharid dynasty of Iran, which encompassed an area of . The Afsharids controlled Eastern Armenia from the mid 1730s until the 1790s. Following the fall of the Afsharids, the Qajar dynasty of Iran took control of Eastern Armenia until 1828, when the region was conquered by the Russian Empire after their victory over the Qajars that resulted in the Treaty of Turkmenchay of 1828.


title: Yerevan

text: During the second Russo-Persian War of the 19th century, the Russo-Persian War of 1826–28, Yerevan was captured by Russian troops under general Ivan Paskevich on 1 October 1827. It was formally ceded by the Iranians in 1828, following the Treaty of Turkmenchay. After 3 centuries of Iranian occupation, Yereven along with the rest of Eastern Armenia designated as the "Armenian Oblast", became part of the Russian Empire, a period that would last until the collapse of the Empire in 1917. The Russians sponsored the resettlement process of the Armenian population from Persia and Turkey. Due to the resettlement, the percentage of the Armenian population of Yerevan increased from 28% to 53.8%. The resettlement was intended to create Russian power bridgehead in the Middle East. In 1829, Armenian repatriates from Persia were resettled in the city and a new quarter was built.


title: Yerevan

text: Yerevan served as the seat of the newly formed Armenian Oblast between 1828 and 1840. By the time of Nicholas I's visit in 1837, Yerevan had become an "uezd" ("county"). In 1840, the Armenian Oblast was dissolved and its territory incorporated into a new larger province; the Georgia-Imeretia Governorate. In 1850 the territory of the former oblast was reorganized into the Erivan Governorate, covering an area of . Yerevan was the centre of the newly established governorate.


title: Yerevan

text: At that period, Yerevan was a small town with narrow roads and alleys, including the central quarter of "Shahar", the "Ghantar" commercial centre, and the residential neighbourhoods of Kond, Dzoragyugh, Nork and Shentagh. During the 1840s and the 1850s, many schools were opened in the city. However, the first major plan of Yerevan was adopted in 1856, during which, Saint Hripsime and Saint Gayane women's colleges were founded and the English Park was opened. In 1863, the Astafyan Street was redeveloped and opened. In 1874, Zacharia Gevorkian opened Yerevan's first printing house, while the first theatre opened its doors in 1879.


title: Yerevan

text: On 1 October 1879, Yerevan was granted the status of a city through a decree issued by Alexander II of Russia. In 1881, The Yerevan Teachers' Seminary and the Yerevan Brewery were opened, followed by the Tairyan's wine and brandy factory in 1887. Other factories for alcoholic beverages and mineral water were opened during the 1890s. The monumental church of Saint Gregory the Illuminator was opened in 1900. Electricity and telephone lines were introduced to the city in 1907 and 1913 respectively. When British traveller H. F. B. Lynch visited Yerevan in 1893–1894, he considered it an Oriental city. However, this started to change in the first decade of the 20th century, in the penultimate decade of Imperial Russian rule, when the city grew and altered dramatically. In general, Yerevan rapidly grew under Russian rule, both economically and politically. Old buildings were torn down and new buildings of European style were erected.


title: Yerevan

text: At the beginning of the 20th century, Yerevan city's population was over 29,000. In 1902, a railway line linked Yerevan with Alexandropol, Tiflis and Julfa. In the same year, Yerevan's first public library was opened. In 1905, the grandnephew of Napoleon I; prince Louis Joseph Jérôme Napoléon (1864–1932) was appointed as governor of Yerevan province. In 1913, for the first time in the city, a telephone line with eighty subscribers became operational.


title: Yerevan

text: Yerevan served as the centre of the governorate until 1917, when Erivan governorate was dissolved with the collapse of the Russian Empire.


title: Yerevan

text: At the beginning of the 20th century, Yerevan was a small city with a population of 30,000. In 1917, the Russian Empire ended with the October Revolution. In the aftermath, Armenian, Georgian and Muslim leaders of Transcaucasia united to form the Transcaucasian Federation and proclaimed Transcaucasia's secession.


title: Yerevan

text: The Federation, however, was short-lived. After gaining control over Alexandropol, the Turkish army was advancing towards the south and east to eliminate the center of Armenian resistance based in Yerevan. On 21 May 1918, the Turks started their campaign moving towards Yerevan via Sardarabad. Catholicos Gevorg V ordered that church bells peal for 6 days as Armenians from all walks of life – peasants, poets, blacksmiths, and even the clergymen – rallied to form organized military units. Civilians, including children, aided in the effort as well, as "Carts drawn by oxen, water buffalo, and cows jammed the roads bringing food, provisions, ammunition, and volunteers from the vicinity" of Yerevan.


title: Yerevan

text: By the end of May 1918, Armenians were able to defeat the Turkish army in the battles of Sardarabad, Abaran and Karakilisa. Thus, on 28 May 1918, the Dashnak leader Aram Manukian declared the independence of Armenia. Subsequently, Yerevan became the capital and the center of the newly founded Republic of Armenia, although the members of the Armenian National Council were yet to stay in Tiflis until their arrival in Yerevan to form the government in the summer of the same year. Armenia became a parliamentary republic with four administrative divisions. The capital Yerevan was part of the "Araratian Province". At the time, Yerevan received more than 75,000 refugees from Western Armenia, who escaped the massacres perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks during the Armenian genocide.


title: Yerevan

text: On 26 May 1919, the government passed a law to open the Yerevan State University, which was located on the main Astafyan (now Abovyan) street of Yerevan.


title: Yerevan

text: After the signing of the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920, Armenia was granted formal international recognition. The United States, as well as many South American countries, officially opened diplomatic channels with the government of independent Armenia. Yerevan had also opened representatives in Great Britain, Italy, Germany, Serbia, Greece, Iran and Japan.


title: Yerevan

text: However, after the short period of independence, Yerevan fell to the Bolsheviks, and Armenia was incorporated into Soviet Russia on 2 December 1920. Although nationalist forces managed to retake the city in February 1921 and successfully released all the imprisoned political and military figures, the city's nationalist elite were once again defeated by the Soviet forces on 2 April 1921.


title: Yerevan

text: The Red Soviet Army invaded Armenia on 29 November 1920 from the northeast. On 2 December 1920, Yerevan along with the other territories of the Republic of Armenia, became part of Soviet Russia, known as the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. However, the Armenian SSR formed the Transcaucasian SFSR (TSFSR) together with the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, between 1922 and 1936.


title: Yerevan

text: Under the Soviet rule, Yerevan became the first among the cities in the Soviet Union for which a general plan was developed. The "General Plan of Yerevan" developed by the academician Alexander Tamanian, was approved in 1924. It was initially designed for a population of 150,000. The city was quickly transformed into a modern industrial metropolis of over one million people. New educational, scientific and cultural institutions were founded as well.


title: Yerevan

text: Tamanian incorporated national traditions with contemporary urban construction. His design presented a radial-circular arrangement that overlaid the existing city and incorporated much of its existing street plan. As a result, many historic buildings were demolished, including churches, mosques, the Erivan Fortress, baths, bazaars and caravanserais. Many of the districts around central Yerevan were named after former Armenian communities that were destroyed by the Ottoman Turks during the Armenian genocide. The districts of Arabkir, Malatia-Sebastia and Nork Marash, for example, were named after the towns Arabkir, Malatya, Sebastia, and Marash, respectively. After the end of World War II, German POWs were used to help in the construction of new buildings and structures, such as the Kievyan Bridge.


title: Yerevan

text: Within the years, the central Kentron district has become the most developed area in Yerevan, something that created a significant gap compared with other districts in the city. Most of the educational, cultural and scientific institutions were centred in the Kentron district.


title: Yerevan

text: In 1965, during the commemorations of the fiftieth anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Yerevan was the location of a demonstration, the first such demonstration in the Soviet Union, to demand recognition of the Genocide by the Soviet authorities. In 1968, the city's 2,750th anniversary was commemorated.


title: Yerevan

text: Yerevan played a key role in the Armenian national democratic movement that emerged during the Gorbachev era of the 1980s. The reforms of Glasnost and Perestroika opened questions on issues such as the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, the environment, Russification, corruption, democracy, and eventually independence. At the beginning of 1988, nearly one million Armenians from several regions of Armenia engaged in demonstrations concerning these subjects, centered in the city's Theater Square (currently Freedom Square).


title: Yerevan

text: Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Yerevan became the capital of Armenia on 21 September 1991. Maintaining supplies of gas and electricity proved difficult; constant electricity was not restored until 1996 amidst the chaos of the badly instigated and planned transition to a market-based economy.


title: Yerevan

text: Since 2000, central Yerevan has been transformed into a vast construction site, with cranes erected all over the Kentron district. Officially, the scores of multi-storied buildings are part of large-scale urban planning projects. Roughly $1.8 billion was spent on such construction in 2006, according to the national statistical service. Prices for downtown apartments have increased by about ten times during the first decade of the 21st century. Many new streets and avenues were opened, such as the Argishti street, Italy street, Saralanj Avenue, Monte Melkonian Avenue, and the Northern Avenue.


title: Yerevan

text: However, as a result of this construction boom, the majority of the historic buildings located on the central Aram Street, were either entirely destroyed or transformed into modern residential buildings through the construction of additional floors. Only a few structures were preserved, mainly in the portion that extends between Abovyan Street and Mashtots Avenue.


title: Yerevan

text: The first major post-independence protest in Yerevan took place in September 1996, after the announcement of incumbent Levon Ter-Petrosyan's victory in the presidential election. Major opposition parties of the time, consolidated around the former Karabakh Committee member and former Prime Minister Vazgen Manukyan, organized mass demonstrations between 23 and 25 September, claiming electoral fraud by Ter-Petrosyan. An estimated of 200,000 people gathered in the Freedom Square to protest the election results. After a series of riot and violent protests around the Parliament building on 25 September, the government sent tanks and troops to Yerevan to enforce the ban on rallies and demonstrations on the following day. Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan and Minister of National Security Serzh Sargsyan announced on the Public Television of Armenia that their respective agencies have prevented an attempted coup d'état.


title: Yerevan

text: In February 2008, unrest in the capital between the authorities and opposition demonstrators led by ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan took place after the 2008 Armenian presidential election. The events resulted in 10 deaths and a subsequent 20-day state of emergency declared by President Robert Kocharyan.


title: Yerevan

text: In July 2016, a group of armed men calling themselves the "Daredevils of Sassoun" ( "Sasna Tsrrer") stormed a police station in Erebuni District of Yerevan, taking several hostages, demanding the release of opposition leader Jirair Sefilian and the resignation of President Serzh Sargsyan. 3 policeman were killed as a result of the attack. Many anti-government protestors held rallies in solidarity with the gunmen. However, after 2 weeks of negotiations, the crisis ended and the gunmen surrendered.


title: Yerevan

text: Yerevan has an average height of , with a minimum of and a maximum of above sea level in its southwestern and northeastern sections, respectively. It is among the fifty highest cities in the world with over 1 million inhabitants.


title: Yerevan

text: Yerevan is located on the banks of the Hrazdan River, northeast of the Ararat Plain, in the central-western part of the country. The upper part of the city is surrounded with mountains on three sides while it descends to the banks of the river Hrazdan at the south. The Hrazdan divides Yerevan into two parts through a picturesque canyon.


title: Yerevan

text: The city is situated at the heart of the Armenian Highland. Historically, Yerevan was located in the Kotayk canton ( "Kotayk gavar", not to be confused with the current Kotayk Province) of the Ayrarat province of historic Armenia Major.


title: Yerevan

text: According to the current administrative division of Armenia, Yerevan is not part of any "marz" ("province") and has special administrative status as the country's capital. It is bordered by Kotayk Province to the north and the east, Ararat Province to the south and the south-west, Armavir Province to the west and Aragatsotn Province to the north-west.


title: Yerevan

text: The Erebuni State Reserve, formed in 1981, is located around 8 km southeast of the city centre within the Erebuni District of the city. At a height between 1300 and 1450 meters above sea level, the reserve occupies an area of 120 hectares, mainly consisting of semi-deserted mountain-steppes.


title: Yerevan

text: Yerevan features a continental influenced steppe climate (Köppen climate classification: "BSk" or "cold semi-arid climate"), with long, hot, dry summers and short, but cold and snowy winters. This is attributed to Yerevan being on a plain surrounded by mountains and to its distance from the sea and its effects. The summers are usually very hot with the temperature in August reaching up to , and winters generally carry snowfall and freezing temperatures with January often being as cold as and lower. The amount of precipitation is small, amounting annually to about . Yerevan experiences an average of 2,700 sunlight hours per year. On 12 July 2018, Yerevan recorded a temperature of , which is the joint highest temperature to have ever been recorded in Armenia.


title: Yerevan

text: The Yerevan TV Tower is the tallest structure in the city and one of the tallest structures in the South Caucasus.


title: Yerevan

text: The Republic Square, the Yerevan Opera Theatre, and the Yerevan Cascade are among the main landmarks at the centre of Yerevan, mainly developed based on the original design of architect Alexander Tamanian, and the revised plan of architect Jim Torosyan.


title: Yerevan

text: A major redevelopment process has been launched in Yerevan since 2000. As a result, many historic structures have been demolished and replaced with new buildings. This urban renewal plan has been met with opposition and criticism from some residents, as the projects destroy historic buildings dating back to the period of the Russian Empire, and often leave residents homeless. Downtown houses deemed too small are increasingly demolished and replaced by high-rise buildings.


title: Yerevan

text: The Saint Gregory Cathedral, the new building of Yerevan City Council, the new section of Matenadaran institute, the new terminal of Zvartnots International Airport, the Cafesjian Center for the Arts at the Cascade, the Northern Avenue, and the new government complex of ministries are among the major construction projects fulfilled during the first two decades of the 21st century.


title: Yerevan

text: Aram Street of old Yerevan and the newly built Northern Avenue are respectively among the notable examples featuring the traditional and modern architectural characteristics of Yerevan.


title: Yerevan

text: As of May 2017, Yerevan is home to 4,883 residential apartment buildings, and 65,199 street lamps installed on 39,799 street light posts, covering a total length of 1,514 km. The city has 1,080 streets with a total length of 750 km.


title: Yerevan

text: Yerevan is a densely built city but still offers several public parks throughout its districts, graced with mid-sized green gardens. The public park of Erebuni District along with its artificial lake is the oldest garden in the city. Occupying an area of 17 hectares, the origins of the park and the artificial lake date back to the period of king Argishti I of Urartu during the 8th century BCE. In 2011, the garden was entirely remodeled and named as Lyon Park, to become a symbol of the partnership between the cities of Lyon and Yerevan.


title: Yerevan

text: The Lovers' Park on Marshal Baghramyan Avenue and the English Park at the centre of the city, dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries respectively, are among the most popular parks in Yerevan. The Yerevan Botanical Garden (opened in 1935), the Victory Park (opened in the 1950s) and the Circular Park are among the largest green spaces of the city.


title: Yerevan

text: Opened in the 1960s, the Yerevan Opera Theatre Park along with its artificial "Swan Lake" is also among the favorite green spaces of the city. In 2019 some of the public space of the park leased to restaurants was reclaimed allowing for improved landscape design. A public ice-skating arena is operated in the park's lake area during winters.


title: Yerevan

text: The Yerevan Lake is an artificial reservoir opened in 1967 on Hrazdan riverbed at the south of the city centre, with a surface of .


title: Yerevan

text: Each administrative district of Yerevan has its own public park, such as the Buenos Aires Park and Tumanyan Park in Ajapnyak, Komitas Park in Shengavit, Vahan Zatikian Park in Malatia-Sebastia, David Anhaght Park in Kanaker-Zeytun, the Family Park in Avan, and Fridtjof Nansen Park in Nor Nork.


title: Yerevan

text: Yerevan has been the capital of Armenia since the independence of the First Republic in 1918. Situated in the Ararat Plain, the historic lands of Armenia, it served as the best logical choice for capital of the young republic at the time.


title: Yerevan

text: When Armenia became a republic of the Soviet Union, Yerevan remained as capital and accommodated all the political and diplomatic institutions in the republic. In 1991 with the independence of Armenia, Yerevan continued with its status as the political and cultural centre of the country, being home to all the national institutions: the Government House, the National Assembly, the Presidential Palace, the Central Bank, the Constitutional Court, all ministries, judicial bodies and other government organizations.


title: Yerevan

text: Yerevan received the status of a city on 1 October 1879, upon a decree issued by Tsar Alexander II of Russia. The first city council formed was headed by Hovhannes Ghorghanyan, who became the first mayor of Yerevan.


title: Yerevan

text: The Constitution of the Republic of Armenia adopted on 5 July 1995, granted Yerevan the status of a marz (մարզ, province). Therefore, Yerevan functions similarly to the provinces of Armenia with a few specifications.


title: Yerevan

text: In the modified Constitution of 27 November 2005, Yerevan city was turned into a "community" (համայնք, "hamaynk"); since, the Constitution declares that this community has to be led by a mayor, elected directly or indirectly, and that the city needs to be governed by a specific law. The first election of the Yerevan City Council took place in 2009 and won by the ruling Republican Party of Armenia.


title: Yerevan

text: In addition to the national police and road police, Yerevan has its own municipal police. All three bodies cooperate to maintain law in the city.


title: Yerevan

text: Yerevan is divided into twelve "administrative districts" (վարչական շրջան, "varčakan šrĵan") each with an elected leader. The total area of the 12 districts of Yerevan is .


title: Yerevan

text: Originally a small town, Yerevan became the capital of Armenia and a large city with over one million inhabitants. Until the fall of the Soviet Union, the majority of the population of Yerevan were Armenians with minorities of Russians, Kurds, Azerbaijanis and Iranians present as well. However, with the breakout of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War from 1988 to 1994, the Azerbaijani minority diminished in the country in what was part of population exchanges between Armenia and Azerbaijan. A big part of the Russian minority also fled the country during the 1990s economic crisis in the country. Today, the population of Yerevan is overwhelmingly Armenian.


title: Yerevan

text: After the collapse of the Soviet Union, due to economic crises, thousands fled Armenia, mostly to Russia, North America and Europe. The population of Yerevan fell from 1,250,000 in 1989 to 1,103,488 in 2001 and to 1,091,235 in 2003. However, the population of Yerevan has been increasing since. In 2007, the capital had 1,107,800 inhabitants.


title: Yerevan

text: Yerevantsis in general use the Yerevan dialect, an Eastern Armenian dialect most probably formed during the 13th century. It is currently spoken in and around Yerevan, including the towns of Vagharshapat and Ashtarak. Classical Armenian ("Grabar") words compose a significant part of the dialect's vocabulary. Throughout the history, it was influenced by several languages, especially Russian and Persian and loan words have significant presence in it today. It is currently the most widespread Armenian dialect.


title: Yerevan

text: Yerevan was inhabited first by Armenians and remained homogeneous until the 15th century. The population of the Erivan Fortress, founded in the 1580s, was mainly composed of Muslim soldiers, estimated two to three thousand. The city itself was mainly populated by Armenians. French traveler Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who visited Yerevan possibly up to six times between 1631 and 1668, states that the city is exclusively populated by Armenians. Although much of the Armenian population of the city was deported during the 17th century, the city remained Armenian-majority during the Ottoman–Hotaki War (1722–1727). The demographics of the region changed because of a series of wars between the Ottoman Empire, Iran and Russia. In the early 19th century Yerevan had a Muslim majority, mainly with an Armenian and "Caucasian Tatar" population. According to the traveler H. F. B. Lynch, the city was about 50% Armenian and 50% Muslim (Azerbaijanis and Persians) in the early 1890s


title: Yerevan

text: After the Armenian genocide, many refugees from what Armenians call Western Armenia (nowadays Turkey, then Ottoman Empire) escaped to Eastern Armenia. In 1919, about 75,000 Armenian refugees from the Ottoman Empire arrived in Yerevan, mostly from the Vaspurakan region (city of Van and surroundings). A significant part of these refugees died of typhus and other diseases.


title: Yerevan

text: From 1921 to 1936, about 42,000 ethnic Armenians from Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Greece, Syria, France, Bulgaria etc. went to Soviet Armenia, with most of them settling in Yerevan. The second wave of repatriation occurred from 1946 to 1948, when about 100,000 ethnic Armenians from Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus, Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, France, United States etc. moved to Soviet Armenia, again most of whom settled in Yerevan. Thus, the ethnic makeup of Yerevan became more monoethnic during the first 3 decades in the Soviet Union. The Azerbaijani population of Yerevan, who made up 43% of the population of the city prior to the October Revolution, dropped to 0.7% by 1959 and further to 0.1% by 1989, during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.


title: Yerevan

text: There is an Indian population in Armenia, with over 22,000 residents recorded in the country. Much of this population resides in Yerevan, where a large proportion run businesses, Indian restaurants, and study in Yerevan universities.


title: Yerevan

text: Armenian Apostolic Christianity is the predominant religion in Armenia. The 5th-century Saint Paul and Peter Church demolished in November 1930 by the Soviets, was among the earliest churches ever built in Erebuni-Yerevan. Many of the ancient Armenian and medieval churches of the city were destroyed by the Soviets in the 1930s during the Great Purge.


title: Yerevan

text: The regulating body of the Armenian Church in Yerevan is the Araratian Pontifical Diocese, with the Surp Sarkis Cathedral being the seat of the diocese. It is the largest diocese of the Armenian Church and one of the oldest dioceses in the world, covering the city of Yerevan and the Ararat Province of Armenia.