| Araks RiverAraks River is located in and along the countries of Armenia, Turkey, Iran, and Azerbaijan. Its total length is 1,072 kilometers. It is one of the largest rivers of the Caucasus and the largest river of the Armenian Highland (length 995 km). The Akhurian, Metsamor, Hrazdan, Azat, Vedi, Arpa, Vorotan, Voghdji and Megri rivers flow in from the Armenian north side.
The river is named after Arast, a great-grandson of the legendary Armenian patriarch Haik. The name was later Hellenized to Araxes and was applied to the Kura-Araxes culture, a prehistoric people which flourished in the valleys of the Kura and Araks. But many times it is the Volga River which is called Araxes especially in Herodotus' History first chapter - The First of Book the Histories, Called Clio. The river is also mentioned in the last chapter of the Aeneid VIII by Virgil, as «angry at the bridge», since the Romans built a bridge over it, so that it is thereby conquered. By some, the river Araks has been associated with the otherwise unidentified Gihon and Pishon rivers mentioned in the second chapter of the Bible.
The River Araxes is described in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire as the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire. It was established as such by treaty of 297AD between Emperor Diocletian and the Persians.
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