Tigranakert (also spelled Dikranagerd), now known as Dyarbekir , was founded by the Armenian Emperor Dikran the Great in the 1st century BC and after the fall of Julius Caesar. Dikranagerd was founded as the new capital of the Armenian Empire in order to be in a more central position within the boundaries of the growing nation. Armenia at this time had expanded east to the Caspian Sea, west to the Mediteranean, and south towards Israel advancing as far as the regions surroundings what is now the Krak des Chevaliers. Dikranagerd became a center for Armenian culture and was home to the Armenians up until the Armenian massacres of the 19th century and the Armenian Genocide of 1915, whence the population was erased and replaced by Kurds and Turks.
