Artsakh is a historical territory in the Transcaucasia, which has been the 9th province of the Greater Armenia. It covered the area of the modern Republic of Artsakh and its adjacent areas.
Since the 2nd century BC until 387 AD, Artsakh has been a province of Greater Armenia, the northeastern borders of which passed along the Kura River, as testified by a number of Greek, Roman, and Armenian historians and geographers.
Arstakh was also referred to as “Orchistene” by Strabo. He also mentioned it as a province of Armenia. Here, Tigran II the Great built Tigranakert of Artsakh, the fourth city named after him. Today, that particular Tigranakert is identified with the ruins of an antique and medieval city discovered near Aghdam.
At the site, archaeologists discovered the ruins of a citadel, a 5th-6th-century Christian basilica, as well as hundreds of artifacts resembling those found in Armenia. Tigranakert of Artsakh existed since the 1st century BC until the 13th-15th centuries.
