ARAS

aras, the anc. _araxes_, and the _phasis_ of xenophon (turk. and arab. _ras_, armen. _yerash_, georg. _rashki_), a river which rises south of erzerum, in the bingeul-dagh, and flows east through the province of erzerum, across the pasin plateau, and then through russian armenia, passing between mount ararat and erivan, and forming the russo-persian frontier. its course is about 600 m. long; its principal tributary is the zanga, which flows by erivan and drains lake gokcha or sevanga. it is a rapid and muddy stream, dangerous to cross when swollen by the melting of the snows in armenia, but fordable in its ordinary state. it formerly joined the kura; but in 1897 it changed its lower course, and now runs direct to the kizil-agach bay of the caspian. on an island in its bed stood artaxata, the capital of armenia from 180 b.c. to a.d. 50.