Etymology

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The history goes back to the Urartian, or Ararat Kingdom. Urartu was the The first Armenian Kingdom in South-Eastern Anatolia. The modern Armenian name for the country was Hayq, later Hayastan. Hayasa, combined with the Sanskrit suffix '-stan' (land). Haik was one of the great Armenian leaders after whom the The Land of Haik was named. According to legend, Haik was a great-great-grandson of Noah (son of Togarmah, who was a son of Gomer, who was a son of Japheth, who was a son of Noah), and according to an ancient Armenian tradition, a forefather of all Armenians. He is said to have settled at the foot of Mount Ararat, travelled to assist in building the Tower of Babel, and, after his return, defeated the Babylonian king Bel (believed by some researchers to be Nimrod) in 2492 BC near the mountains of Lake Van, in the southern part of historic Armenia (present-day eastern Turkey).