Yerevan, Armenia
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia, and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country. It has been the capital since 1918, the thirteenth in the history of Armenia, and the seventh located in or around the Ararat plain. The history of Yerevan dates back to the 8th century BC, with the founding of the fortress of Erebuni in 782 BC by king Argishti I at the western extreme of the Ararat plain. Erebuni was "designed as a great administrative and religious centre, a fully royal capital. During the centuries long Iranian rule over Eastern Armenia that lasted from the early 16th century up to 1828, it was the center of Iran's Erivan khanate administrative division from 1736. In 1828, it became part of Imperial Russia alongside the rest of Eastern Armenia which conquered it from Iran through the Russo-Persian War between 1826 and 1828. After World War I, Yerevan became the capital of the First Republic of Armenia as thousands of survivors of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire settled in the area. The city expanded rapidly during the 20th century as Armenia became part of the Soviet Union. In a few decades, Yerevan was transformed from a provincial town within the Russian Empire, to Armenia's principal cultural, artistic, and industrial center, as well as becoming the seat of national government. With the growth of the economy of the country, Yerevan has been undergoing major transformation as many parts of the city have been the recipient of new construction since the early 2000s, and retail outlets as much as restaurants, shops, and street cafes, which were rare during Soviet times, have multiplied. As of 2011, the population of Yerevan was 1,060,138, just over 35% of the Republic of Armenia's total population. According to the official estimate of 2016, the current population of the city is 1,073,700. Yerevan was named the 2012 World Book Capital by UNESCO. Yerevan is an associate member of Eurocities. More information is available on Wikipedia
This week, our tour of major cities continues over Yerevan (also Erivan or Erevan), Armenia's capital and largest city. It sits on the river Hrazdan near Turkey and is situated in a scenic region noted for its orchards and vineyards. The city is an industrial, transport, and cultural centre where factories produce chemicals, primary metals, machinery, rubber, plastics, textiles, and processed food. Yerevan is a centre of Armenian culture and education. It boasts Yerevan State University (1920), the Armenian Academy of Sciences, a historical museum, an opera house, a music conservatory, and several technical institutes. The Matenadaran archives hold a rich collection of valuable ancient Armenian manuscripts. Accompanying this wealth of data, Yerevan has several large public libraries, a number of museums and theatres, and botanical and zoological gardens. The city is also the site of ruins of a Roman fort, a 16th-century Turkish fort, and of an 18th-century mosque. Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of an Urartu fortress and a city built on the site of Yerevan in the 800BC. These images acquired by Landsat 4 and 8 satellites show what has changed in twenty-seven years. In these two images, use the slider to see what has changed. Another aim of these images is to promote the opportunity to download Landsat data through the ESA portals, where images captured every day are made available in near real time to the users and the scientific community. Landsat full resolution data products are freely available for immediate download at:  View Landsat 4 TM high resolution image (JPG 2.8 MB) View Landsat 8 OLI high resolution image (JPG 2.1 MB)
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