From its inception in the 9th century BCE to its eventual demise some 200 years later, the Urartu Kingdom dominated the Lake Van region, in today’s northeastern Turkey. Known to its inhabitants as Biainili, the Urartian state formed as a confederation of kingdoms, likely in response to threats from their powerful neighbors the Assyrians. The Assyrians are also important to the study of Urartu, as Assyrian texts make up the main body of knowledge about Urartu. Through these foreign texts we can observe that despite its relatively short existence, Urartu left an indelible mark on the region, still visible to the present day. Thank you to Zach Willis for writing about this fascinating kingdom.