Urartu
Urartu
was an ancient
kingdom
in the mountainous region north of
Mesopotamia.
The people were related to the
Hurrians
and
Hittites. The existence
of the country dates from around
1000
BC, first as a group of emirates but forming a unified kingdom by
860
BC. It was defeated by the
Scythians
in
585 BC. Tushpa, the capital
of the kingdom, was located at
Van
on the shore of
Lake Van.
They were experts in stone architecture and metal industry. They used Assyrian
Cuneiform
Script to write in their
Indo-European
language.
