Historic Dalma Gardens and Urartian Vineyards Overlook

Why is it significant?

Conclude your journey across Tsitsernakaberd at the southern overlook facing the historic Dalma Gardens.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Conclude your journey across Tsitsernakaberd at the southern overlook facing the historic Dalma Gardens. Spread across the gentle terraced slopes below is Armenia's oldest cultivated agricultural landscape, where orchards and vineyards have been tended continuously for more than two thousand seven hundred years. Cuneiform inscriptions carved in basalt record that in the eighth century BC, King Rusa the Second of Urartu constructed an extensive rock-cut irrigation canal diverting water from the Hrazdan River to irrigate these fertile gardens.

For millennia, Dalma Gardens were celebrated as the royal agricultural breadbasket of Yerevan. The sheltered southern microclimate and rich volcanic soils enabled master horticulturists to produce legendary varieties of apricots, pomegranates, quinces, and table grapes that supplied royal banquets from Urartian kings to Persian khans and Russian tsars. Ancient stone irrigation channels cut into bedrock thousands of years ago continue to nourish parts of this landscape today.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Dalma was famed for its stone wine presses and ancestral cellars where local families produced traditional wines and brandies. Although portions of the gardens have yielded to modern urban expansion, community activists, historians, and conservationists continue to champion the protection of this millennial cultural landscape as a living national agricultural monument.

Standing at this tranquil southern overlook as the afternoon sun casts long golden shadows across the ancient terraced fields toward Mount Ararat, you can reflect on the remarkable continuity of Armenian civilization. From ancient Urartian canals to modern civic triumphs, this sacred landscape embodies the timeless survival and creative genius of Yerevan. The ancient stone channels and whispering orchards remind travelers that life, culture, and viticulture in the Ararat valley endure unbroken across three millennia, rooted in fertile volcanic earth. Preserving this living agricultural sanctuary celebrates the deep agrarian roots and enduring resilience of the Armenian nation.

Relax at the scenic park terrace or take the pedestrian path down toward Athens Street to conclude your tour.