| Hrazdan Հրազդան |
|
|---|---|
The Hrazdan from below Proshian |
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| Origin | Lake Sevan |
| Mouth | Aras River |
| Basin countries | Armenia |
| Length | 141 km |
| Source elevation | 1097 m |
| Mouth elevation | 826 m |
| Avg. discharge | 17.9 m3/s (632 cu ft/s) |
| Basin area | 2560 km2 (988 sq mi) |
The Hrazdan (Armenian: Հրազդան) is a major river of Armenia. It starts at the northwest extremity of Lake Sevan and flows south through the Kotayk marz and Armenia's capital, Yerevan. It then joins the Aras River along the border with Turkey. A Hydro-electric plant is located on the Hrazdan river. Hrazdan river is one of Armenia's most important rivers because fishing operations and hydro-electric plants are located along the banks of the river. Moreover, the river's waters are in demand for the irrigation of crops.
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In 7th century BC, king of Urartu Rusa II order to grub a channel from Aza country (in Ararat plain) to Kuera (Valley of Kuarlini, now Ejmiatsin). That river was called Ildarunia in Rusa II’s inscription. Ildarunia was a local ancient name of Hrazdan River. First time the name Hrazdan was mentioned by Movses Khorenatsi as "House of Varuzhanyants in he bank of Hrazdan River" (Armenian: «Վարուժանյանց տուն՝ Հրազդան գետի ափին»). Hrazdan River like Kasagh River, Metsamor River, Urtsadzor River, Arpa River, flows to Araks River. Anania Shirakatsi mentioned the same location of Hrazdan River with the name Aspahen in his inscription as "Aspahen River that is Khozmor" (Armenian: «Ասպահեն գետ, այսինքն՝ Խոզմոր»). Aspahen had two names Metsamor and Khozmor. The suffix –mor means water. Khoz is an ancient name of planet Mars in Armenian. During the era of Persian influence on Armenian the name of the river changed. The new name was Phrazdana. The first two letters "Phr" changed to "Hr", so the name changed to Hrazdan. During new Persian language era Hrazdan receive a new name Mangu (stony river). In Yerevan’s dialect Mangu changed to Zangu (Zengi in Turkish and Persian, means "black man"). Thus the names Ildarunia, Metsamor and Khozmor are local Armenian words, but Aspahen, Hrazdan and Zangu were foreign words with Armenian influence.