MONUMENTS

VIII c. BC

State Index՝ 1.5.24

Founder: King of Van (Urartu) Argishti I (786-764 BC)

The artificial reservoir, which is publicly known as the “Tokhmakh Gyol” (Lake), is located in the southeastern part of the city, in the Lyon Park (formerly Vardavar, Comerit Union, Tokhmakh). It was built by the Urartian King Argishti I to provide the castle of Erebuni with water supplement and irrigate the surrounding lands.

The water for the Lake was provided by the Abu Hayat canal. Now the waters of the Getar and Mamri canals flow into the lake. It is a 7-hectare occupying pit installed in the artificial soil-made bulwark.

It is believed that drinking water from the reservoir was delivered to the fortress city of Erebuni due to tufa-made pipes: some of them were found at the outfall of Arin Berd. Until the

1930s, a round, tower-shaped building with narrow and small openings and a height of about 6 m had been maintained which had its analogs at the outflow of Abu Hayat canal, as well as not far from the Hrazdan’s Great Bridge, on the top of the hill rising in the very vicinity of the canyon.

It is assumed that these tower-shaped buildings were guard posts for monitoring the water supplement.

The surface of Vardavar Lake is 0.085 km2, the water capacity is 151,000 m3. The bulwark is made of soil, the maximum height is 7 m.

The Lake was rebuilt in the XVI century by the Tokhmakh Khan, the Persian ruler of Yerevan. According to the legend, after Abu Hayat’s suicide, her beloved Tokhmakh Khan threw himself into this lake. Since then, the lake has been named Tokhmakh, and the canal flowing into it received the name of Abu Hayat.

“Scientific Research Centre of Historical and Cultural Heritage” SNCO

Yerevan Municipality