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In the second edition for the year 1881 of the project “The Collection of the Materials to Describe the Terrain and Tribes in the Caucasus,” Nakhijevan city school inspector K.A. Nikitin published an extensive research titled “Nakhijevan: Biblical and legendary tales, historical data and ancient monuments.”

“In the ancient times, the Armenians called the city Nakhijevan by the name ‘Nakhjavan,’ and the Greeks ‘Naksuana.’ It was the main city in Nakhijevan district of Vaspurakan province in ancient Armenia. ‘Nakhijevan’ is an Armenian word – ‘նախիջևան’ – that has the meaning ‘first settlement, first shelter’,” this is how the author explains the origin of the toponym Nakhijevan.

Referencing Armenian (Stepanos Orbelian, Lazar Jagrinski) and Persian (geographer Hamdudlah Ghazvini) sources, the author writes that the city of Nakhijevan was founded in 1539 BC, and was “the most splendid place on the Earth” with about 150 thousand population that “stood out with wealth and carried out extensive trade operations.” However, in 633 BC, the Scythians plundered the city.

The population of the city grew under the Armenian King Tigranes the Great who resettled here Armenians from the other regions of the country, as well as Mede captives. However, the author points that Nakhijevan’s prosperity was not constant as it was repeatedly destroyed, and the inhabitants had to rebuild it again. “Such vicissitudes of fate contributed to the fall of Nakhijevan. It went from one ruler to the other, and the inhabitants suffered lootings, murders, destructions, were taken into captivity and slavery,” the author writes.

The reason was that the city was situated on the “Great World Route” lying on the way of Alexander of Macedon, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane. The city finally turned into a heap of ruins in 1673 by the Iranian Nader Shah. After that, Nakhijevan revived again, yet it could not restore its former greatness.

As for the ancient monuments, the author first of all singles out the artifacts, namely the axes and stone wedges found in the ancient salt mines, the Armenian monastery Karmir Vank, as well as the remains of fortress walls, and mosques built under Persian rule.

Further, the author describes the times closer to the moment of his writing. In particular, he writes about the construction of the first water-pipe. “A ditch flows through the midst of Nakhijevan drawing water from the river and irrigating all tilled soils, gardens and orchards in the city. However, the water in the ditch is not sufficient for the city because the inhabitants of the villages nearby also take it. In addition, in fierce summer heats, the river dries up to the point of turning into a small brook. Along with water shortage, a commonplace unrest emerges invoked by the failure to satisfy one of the most basic human needs.” The author goes on presenting an enormous number of “water lawsuits” that piled in the Justice of Peace court.

In the face of such water shortage, the honorable supervisor of Nakhijevan uyezd school, Avetis Ter-Mikirtichyants, from the town of Agulis, constructed water-pipes on his own expenses, which started to irrigate the city with fresh spring water. Besides, he constructed pools in various parts of the city to collect the water.

“The Collection of the Materials to Describe the Terrain and Tribes in the Caucasus” is a large-scale publication of narrative sources carried out by the management of the Caucasus Educational Okrug in 1881-1908. It includes researches and description of the history, life, way of life and ethnographic characteristics of the peoples inhabiting the Caucasus region of the Russian Empire.