[1] The history of this area goes back to the settlement of the banks of the Çoruh River by the Hurri and Mitanni branches of the Hittites in 2000 BC.

The first mention of Ardanuç was in a Urartu monument to the defeat of the local people in battle by King Sarduri II in 753 BC.

Artanuj being a mountain stronghold was hard to capture, although it did fall to the Mongols during their wars with the Turks and Georgians in the 13th century and was brought into the Ottoman Empire in 1551 by Suleiman the Magnificent following yet another siege, this time to overturn the local ruler, Atabeg of Samtskhe Jakeli.

During the early stages of the First World War, Ottoman irregular forces carried out massacres of the local Armenian and other members of the Christian population.

The town of Ardanuç is on the western side of Yalnızçam Mount and at the conjunction of Bulanık, Aydın and Horhot streams.