words will be here added with respect to the more eastern portion, which
immediately bordered upon the Median territory. This consisted of
two outlying districts, separated from the rest of the country, the
triangular basin of Lake Van, and the tract between the Kur and
Aras rivers--the modern Karabagh and Erivan. The basin of Lake Van,
surrounded by high ranges, and forming the very heart of the mountain
system of this part of Asia, is an isolated region, a sort of natural
citadel, where a strong military power would be likely to establish
itself. Accordingly it is here, and here alone in all Armenia, that we
find signs of the existence, during the Assyrian and Median periods, of
a great organized monarchy.

The Van inscriptions indicate to us a line of kings who bore sway in the
eastern Armenia--the true Ararat--and who were both in civilization
and in military strength far in advance of any of the other princes who
divided among them the Armenian territory. The Van monarchs may have
been at times formidable enemies of the Medes. They have left traces of
their dominion, not only on the tops of the mountain passes which lead
into the basin of Lake Urumiyeh, but even in the comparatively low plain
of Miyandab on the southern shore of that inland sea. It is probable
from this that they were at one time masters of a large portion of Media
Atropatene, and the very name of Urumiyeh, which still attaches to the
lake, may have been given to it from one of their tribes. In the tract
between the Kur and Aras, on the other hand, there is no sign of
the early existence of any formidable power. Here the mountains are
comparatively low, the soil is fertile, and the climate temperate. The
character of the region would lead its inhabitants to cultivate the arts
of peace rather than those of war, and would thus tend to prevent them
from being formidable or troublesome to their neighbors.