Urartu was one of the most fascinating and powerful kingdoms of the ancient Near East — yet today, it is almost forgotten. Three thousand years ago, the people of Urartu carved mighty fortresses into mountains, engineered canals and aqueducts that still work today, and turned the Armenian Highlands into the heart of a thriving empire. Their capital, Tushpa, overlooked Lake Van and became a center of politics, religion, and military power. Urartu’s kings — Aramu, Sarduri I, Ishpuini, Menua, Argishti I, and Sarduri II — built a state capable of resisting Assyria, the superpower of the ancient world.This podcast tells the full story of Urartu. We explore its origins in the aftermath of the Late Bronze Age collapse, when the fall of the Hittite Empire left the region without central authority. Tribal alliances, Hurrian migrations, and the rise of the “land of Nairi” all paved the way for the birth of a new kingdom. We follow Urartu’s early kings as they fought against relentless Assyrian expansion and gradually transformed their loose confederation into a unified, centralized monarchy.You’ll see how Urartu became a true military powerhouse: its army equipped with iron weapons, its fortresses designed to withstand sieges, its cavalry striking fear into enemies across the Near East. We look at its religion, from the rise of the god Haldi as the kingdom’s supreme deity to the great temple of Musasir, a sacred shrine that became the spiritual heart of Urartian identity.The podcast also covers Urartu’s golden age under Sarduri II, when the kingdom reached its maximum territorial extent and for the first time imposed its will on Assyria. But we also examine the kingdom’s struggles, from the reforms of Tiglath-Pileser III to the devastating Assyrian campaigns of Sargon II — culminating in the fall of Musasir, the loss of the statue of Haldi, and the death of King Rusa I.Finally, we trace the kingdom’s slow decline: the pressure from Assyria, raids by nomadic tribes like the Cimmerians and Scythians, and the eventual destruction of Urartu by the Medes around 590 BC. Though the kingdom vanished, its legacy survived — in its fortresses, inscriptions, and the later culture of Armenia.If you’re interested in ancient history, the Bible’s land of Ararat, Assyrian warfare, early Armenian civilization, or the forgotten empires of the Iron Age, this is a deep dive into one of the most impressive — and most overlooked — civilizations of the ancient world.
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🎤 Voiceover by: Nick Banas
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