Acilisene


Acilisene, known as Ekegheats or Yekeghyats in Armenian, was a region of the Upper Armenia province of historical Armenia. It was a strip of land along the Upper Euphrates or Arsanias roughly corresponding to today's Erzincan Province of Turkey. Its main cities were Erznka and Ani-Kamakh near the ancient necropolis of the Arsacid kings of Armenia.
The Erznka valley, crossed by the Upper Euphrates, was the location of the most important pre-Christian shrine in Armenia, dedicated to the Armenian goddess Anahit. The temple, whose site has not yet been identified, was in a settlement called Erez. Because of its association with the goddess, the region was also called Anahtakan.
Under the Arsacid dynasty, it was one of the properties of the house of Gregory the Illuminator and was sometimes called Gavar Lusavorchi.