Ask any Armenian where Yerevan starts from and, unhesitatingly, they will point at Mount Ararat. The Great Mountain dominates the entire landscape like a mysterious eye or a word comprehensible to the chosen and yet fully comprehended by none. Tamanyan employed the absolute beauty of the mountain by seeing to it that Ararat was always vis­ible from any building in the city.

There is a superb panorana of Ararat from Yerevan. The Russian Tsar Nickolas the I made a pilgrimage to enjoy this view. In the past, Aram Street was called Tsarski. The Tsar stopped here in 1837. According to the records, 'the Tsar woke up early in the morning and approached the window that looked at the Zangou to see the peak of Ararat, but it was shroud­ed in clouds. The weather was rainy, and the moun­tain was covered with a thick blanket of fog during all the three days of the Tsar's stay in the Ararat Valley. Nicholas departed without seeing Ararat, "1 paid my visit to the Holy Mountain, but it hid from me. I did not see it. Neither did Ararat see the Russian Tsar. I do not know whether there will be another chance for it to see me.'"

Ararat is capricious but incorruptible. Any moment it may cover its snowy peak with cloudy curtains. 'I managed to see the clouds' worship of Ararat,' said the Russian poet O. Mandelshtam. The Mountain of all Mountains was kind to him. The poet assured that he had developed a 'sixth sense of Ararat,' the sense of the mountain's grav­ity. Ararat is the preferred sight in Yerevan although it is not included in tourist guides.

Yerevan was proclaimed the capital of the Republic of Armenia in 1918. It is the twelfth capital of Armenia, its industrial, banking, cultural, artistic and scientific centre and its most important junction of air, rail and motor roads. The legislative, executive and judicial branches of state power are based in Yerevan. The capital is in the Ararat Patriarchal Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church with St Sargis Vicarial Church at its heart.

In 1995, the city was granted marz status. Yerevan is governed by Yerevan Municipality with the Mayor at its head. In conformity with the RA Law on Local Self-Government in Yerevan, in 2009 Yerevan became a com­munity with its neighborhoods as its administrative districts. 65 mem­bers of Yerevan Council elect the Mayor of Yerevan.

The city encompasses the neighborhoods of Avan, Arabkir, Ajapnyak, Davita- shen, Qanaqer-Zeytoun, Malatya-Sebastya, New Nork, Nork-Marash, Nouba- rashen, Kentron (centre). Shengavit, Erebouni, the villages of Noubarashen. Noragavit, Noragyugh, Davitashen, Haghtanak, Cilician Neighbourhood, the adjacent Jrvezh, Arinj, Argavand and Zovouni. The population number is 1.1 m. Over 97 % of the population are Armenians. Yerevan participates in twinning projects with 29 cities around the world (Titograd, Cambridge, Carrara, Lyon. Athens, Florence, Sao Paulo, Minsk, Moscow, etc.).

The symbols of the city - its coat of arms, flag, anthem Erebouni-Yerevan (music by E. Hovhannisyan and lyrics by P. Sevak) - were established in 2004.

The etymology of the name of the city is of interest both to Armenians and foreigners. According to the Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia, the name Yerevan stems from the name of the Erebouni Citadel and means a build­ing or settlement. Some scholars believe that Erebouni means victory, li could also mean the victory of the creative spirit.

The romantic etymology is connected with the legend of Noah's Ark: the first land that Noah saw after the waters of the Deluge subsided was the site of Yerevan - Nakhijevan (the first dwelling) - or the first place where Noah stopped. 'Yerev and' (look there), Noah exclaimed happily. And so the city was christened Yerevan.

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