Armenian Highland / General characteristics

Before starting the description of the position and borders of the highland, let’s understand what the term highland means.

Highlands are a physical and geographical concept. It is a combination of mountain ranges, massifs, plateaus, and intermontane basins, which are together located at a common height above sea level.

In the early geological past, the territory of Armenian highland was at the bottom of the Tethys Ocean. Tethys occupied the territory between the continents of Gondwana and Laurasia. Rocks on these continents have survived erosion and weathering for millions of years. As a result, substances settled on the bottom of the Tethys Ocean, creating a powerful complex of sediments. In the future a large Arabian plate torn from Gondwana moved north and squeezed the geosyncline of Tethys, forming a “mountain island”.

As a result of geological processes on the territory of the Tethys Ocean, the Alpide belt was formed.

Armenian Highland is located in the Northern Hemisphere. It is completely located in the subtropics, from the east of Anatolia to the Caspian Sea. It is located in the territory stretching from the Colchis and Kur-Araz Lowlands to the Mesopotamian Lowland. It is situated between the Anatolian plateau and the Iranian plateau. Armenian Highland is about 500-700 meters higher than the neighboring highlands and bordered by fragmented mountains. That is why it is often called a mountain island. The average height of the highland is 1850 meters.

The highland is one of the complex nodes of the Mediterranean mountain formation. It combines fragmented mountain ranges, young volcanic massifs, and plateaus.

Volcanoes and earthquakes

The Armenian highland is one of the regions in the world with pronounced volcanism. This is manifested by a variety of effusive and intrusive rocks. The reliefs are especially pronounced on the territory of the Armenian Upland. Highland is a vast area of ​​volcanic formations bordered by fragmented mountains. Peripheral mountain ranges are a natural barrier to the penetration of air masses. That’s why most of the precipitation falls on the windy slopes. That is why the peripheral mountains are humid, and the inner areas are characterized by a continental dry climate.

Armenian Highland is located in the Alpine-Himalayan seismically active zone. The magnitude of the earthquake may reach 11. The most active seismic areas are the fields of Yerznka, Ararat, and Shirak. The regions of Vayots Dzor, Javakhk and Zangezur are also seismically active.

Mountain-forming phenomena in the Armenian Highland are still ongoing. Evidence of this is the active volcanoes Sarakn and Tondrak.

The highland is watershed. The water network belongs to the basins of the Black and Mediterranean Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Persian Gulf. As a mountainous country, it is rich in groundwater, which is mainly formed by the absorption of precipitation.

Territory and borders of the Armenian Highland

Different geologists and geographers marked the borders of the highlands in different ways.

Below are the geographical borders of the extreme point of the Armenian highland, obtained by observing a comparison of the complex physical-geographical method and mathematical modeling methods, according to G.T. Shirinyan:

In the north, the border stretches from the mouth of the Yeşilırmak River, along the coastline of the Black Sea to the mouth of the Çoruh River, then continues along the northern and north-eastern foot of the mountains and touches the Caspian Sea.

In the east – along the coast of the Caspian Sea it stretches to the mouth of the Sefīd-Rūd river, it stretches along the channel of this river (90-60 m wide), reaches the source of the Qizil Üzan river and rises to the top of Mount Armatsin (3173 m).

In the south, the border goes along the northern edge of the Mesopotamian lowland, from where it passes through the line of the collision of the Arabian and Eurasian plates. Then it crosses the Euphrates and connects to the Levant.

In the west, the border passes through the Marash basin, then up the Zahan river. From the north, it bypasses the Binbogha and Taurus mountain ranges, then through the Kızılırmak valley, it stretches to the Svaz basin. Then, crossing the pass, it enters the Yeşilırmak valley and stretches along the river to the Black Sea.

According to the observations of G.T. Shirinyan obtained by comparing the complex physical-geographical method and mathematical modeling methods, the area of the Armenian Highland is 512,000 square kilometers.

Article by Tigran Varag

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Armenian Highland