Yerevan ("Երևան" in Armenian; former names include Erivan and ancient name Erebuni; sometimes mistakenly written in Russian transliteration as Erevan) (population: 1,201,539 (1989 census); 1,088,300 (2004 estimate) is the largest city and capital of Armenia. It is situated along the Hrazdan River, which is not navigable, on the Ararat Plain. Yerevan is a leading industrial, cultural, and scientific centre in the Caucasus region. It is also at the heart of an extensive rail network and is a major trading centre for agricultural products. In addition, industries in the city produce metals, machine tools, electrical equipment, chemicals, textiles, and food products. Educational and cultural facilities in Yerevan include universities, the Armenian Academy of Sciences, a state museum, and several libraries. The largest repository of Armenian manuscripts, and indeed one of the biggest repositories of manuscripts in the world, is the Matenadaran.
Life in Yerevan . The layout of Yerevan was designed by Alexander Tamanyan in the 1920's, and has grown way beyond his projections of a couple of hundred thousand residents. The center however remains pretty close to what he envisioned, with a grid pattern of streets intersected by some circular roads and a lot of parks. Virtually all hotels, museums, government offices, clubs and the like are in the very center (see map below), which can be walked across in 20 minutes - making Yerevan an extremely walkable city, except for the drivers. In the summer and fall, central Yerevan can feel like one big café, with the Opera area being their capital. It remains light out until late, people are out drinking surj (Armenian coffee) and freshes (fruit smoothies), eating pastries and crepes. The days can be hot, so the nights are perfect for sitting out. In the winter it is much quieter out, yet the many teahouses across downtown Yerevan are quite packed as well as downtown's main outdoor winter attraction - ice-skating by the Opera, which opened in December 2005. Spring is beautiful, with short showers and lots of greenery. In Novemeber 2007, the pedestrian street Northern Avenue opened, linking the Opera to Republic Square. These being the two focal points of life in the city will make for a lively street. Along with the Northern Avenue, some of the hipper streets are Abovian Street, Tumanian Street, Sayat Nova Street, Terian Street, Mashtots Street, and Amiryan Street. For those that live outside of the small center, public transport is cheap and easy, with Yertughayin Taxis (fixed route vans also referred to as marshrutkas or marshrutnis) bringing people to the center from all over, and the not-so-extensive metro also serving parts of Yerevan. Most of the cities popular shukas (bazaars) are outside of the center - such as the Hrazdan, Bangladesh and Goom shukas. For locals in Yerevan - who like the rest of the republic have seen a sharp drop in living standards since the collapse of the USSR, the problem is not so much unemployment (as is the case in other parts of Armenia) as it is simply underpay and underemployment. People are working, but in jobs well below their capacity and/or for what most would not consider a living wage. Like much of the rest of Armenia, people depend to a great extent on remittances - money sent back home by relatives - and on foreign aid from governments and the Armenian Diaspora. See the Live in Armenia article for information on moving to Armenia.
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