Kingdom of Urartu

Urartu was an Iron Age kingdom centered around the Armenian highlands between Lake Van, Lake Urmia, and Lake Sevan. The territory of the ancient kingdom of Urartu extended over the modern frontiers of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Armenia, the southern regions of Georgia, and western regions of Azerbaijan. Its kings left behind cuneiform inscriptions in the Urartian language, a member of the Hurro-Urartian language family. The kingdom emerged in the mid-9th century BC and dominated the Armenian highlands in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. Urartu frequently warred with Assyria and became, for a time, the most powerful state in the Near East. Weakened by constant conflict, it was eventually conquered, either by the Iranian Medes in the early 6th century.