Dalma gardens

2700 years ago, King Rusa II of Urartu, by order of the god Khaldi, planted a vineyard on a barren plot of the Kuarline field, conducted the Umeshini canal from the Ildaruni River to irrigate the gardens and left a cuneiform inscription about it. Cuneiform is located next to the Zvartnots Temple.

Today, these gardens are known to us as "Dalma Gardens", and we call Ildaruni the Hrazdan River. Previously, the gardens stretched from Tsitsernakaberd to Zvartnots Temple. More than 1000 grape varieties were grown in the gardens. Some varieties of this grape are grown in Armenia even today.

The grapes growing in the gardens were the raw material for winemaking in the period of power of Urartu kingdom. 7 wine cellars with 420 jars were found during the excavations in the city of Teyshebaini. They preserved traces of wine, perhaps made from the grapes of the Dalma gardens.

Evidence of the age of the gardens gives us not only historiographical facts, but also the ancient landscape on the preserved territory of the gardens, which can only be formed over thousands of years. Such ancient landscapes are unique in the world.

Viticulture continued in the gardens during the Middle Ages. This is evidenced by the wine cellars built in the 17th and 18th centuries. Many of them, although half-destroyed, still exist in the park, as "soldiers" of the Middle Ages.

Currently, there are at least 20 dilapidated wineries in the park.