Rivers and lakes in Armenia

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Lake Sevan is one of the few large lakes in the world located at high altitude. There are 33 small rivers falling into Sevan and only one river - Hrazdan flows out of Sevan.

A map of Armenian rivers and their basins

The Rivers and lakes in Armenia are mainly powered by fresh water. Throughout history Armenia has been called Nairi by the Assyrians meaning the "Land of the lakes and rivers". The Armenian Highland is home to many rivers and lakes.

The largest river of the Republic of Armenia is the Araks, which lies on the countries border with Iran and a large part of the border with Turkey. It's major tributaries are the Akhurian, Kasagh, Hrazdan, Azat, Arpa, Vorotan and Voghdji rivers. The largest rivers in north west part of the country are the Debed and Aghstev.

There are not very many lakes in Armenia: there is one very large lake called Lake Sevan and there are more than 100 small mountain lakes. None of them, except Sevan and Arpi, have yet been extensively studied. The water resources of the lakes amount to about 39,300 million cu m, Sevan holding most of this, nearly 39,000 million cu m (before the drainage it had almost 58,000 million cu m).