This overview of current research on the Iron-Age kingdom of Urartu offers studies by thirty scholars who met at an international symposium at Munich University in October 2007. Biainili, as this polity was known to its inhabitants, dominated the mountainous region of what is now eastern Turkey, north-western Iran, and southern Armenia from the ninth to the seventh centuries BC and is distinguished by its unique language and material culture. It was a rival to the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which provides much of the evidence for its history as well as the name by which is best known, Urartu (Biblical Ararat). An introductory chapter giving a general account of the history and culture of the kingdom is followed by more focused contributions on numerous aspects of Urartian culture based on textual records and archaeological sources both from Urartu itself and from neighbouring regions.