urartu the first paragraph of the current urartu article contains this statement urartu assyrian urar u urartian biainili armenian was an ancient kingdom which existed from ca bc emerging from the late bronze age until bc the kingdom of urartu was located in the mountainous plateau between asia minor mesopotamia and caucasus mountains later known as the armenian highland and it centered around lake van present day eastern turkey the name corresponds to the biblical ararat the bible refers to 'ararat' in the book jeremiah but is it a given that the name ararat is indeed derived from urartu a yes or no answer is good enough dab i believe that ararat arev always took this position but i don't know if he was right hereat least this once