Araks River
The
Araks (also spelled
Aras,
Arax,
Araxes, or
Araz;
Armenian: Արաքս,
Azerbaijani:
Araz,
Persian: ارس,
Kurdish:
Aras or
Araz) is a river rising near
Erzurum,
Turkey, flowing along the Turkey-
Armenia border, the
Iran-Armenia border, then along the
Azerbaijan-Iran border, finally entering Azerbaijan and falling into the
Kura river as a right tributary. Its total length is 1072 kilometers (665 miles).
Aras was chosen as the border limit between
Persia and
Russia in the
Treaty of Golestan in
1813 by which the whole area north of that river was cut off from Iran and annexed to Russia. Iran and the
Soviet Union later built a joint dam on this river at
Poldasht area.
The
Hellenized form
Araxes is found in the name of the
Kura-Araxes culture, a prehistoric people which flourished in the valleys of the Kura and Aras.
But many times it is the Volga river which is called Araxes especially in
Herodotus'
History first chapter - The First of Book the Histories, Called Clio. It is the river where the
Massagetae defeated
Cyrus.
By some, the river Araks has been associated with the otherwise unidentified
Gihon river mentioned in the second chapter of the Bible.
The river Aras is also referred to in the song "Holy Mountains" on
System of a Down's album entitled "Hypnotize".
