Aras River

River in Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran. It rises in the mountains south of Erzurum, Turkey, and flows east to join the Kura River in Azerbaijan about 75 mi (120 km) from its mouth. Since a flood in 1897, a separate distributary of the Aras has also emptied into the Caspian Sea. Some 665 mi (1,070 km) long, it forms the boundary between Armenia and Azerbaijan (north) and Turkey and Iran (south). Located on an island from 180 BC to AD 50 was Armenia's capital, Artaxata.