Arame of Urartu

Who is Arame of Urartu?

Arame or Aramu was the first known king of Urartu.

Living at the time of King Shalmaneser III of Assyria, Arame united the Nairi tribe against the threat of the Assyrian Empire. His capital at Arzashkun was captured by Shalmaneser.

Arame has been suggested as the prototype of both Aram and Ara the Beautiful, two of the legendary forefathers of the Armenian people. Khorenatsi's History puts them six and seven generations after Haik, in the chronology of historian Mikayel Chamchian dated to the 19th to 18th century BC.