the territory of the ancient kingdom of urartu extended over the modern frontiers of turkey, iran, iraq, and the republic of armenia. its center was the armenian highland between lake van, lake urmia, and lake sevan. during the seventh century, the urartians collaborated with a combination of scythians and cimmerians in their jockeying for power, but by 590, having been weakened in the constant rivalry between assyrians, babylonians, scythians, and medes, urartu was swallowed by the medes.