The Armenian Highlands is the central-most and highest of the three land-locked plateaus that together form the northern sector of the Middle East. It borders Anatolia in the west, Iran to the southeast, the Caucasus in the northeast, and Mesopotamia to the southwest. During the Iron Age, the region was known as Urartu, and, since the 1040s, the highlands have been ruled by the Turkic and Persian peoples. Historically, the region was mainly inhabited by Armenians, as well as minorities of Assyrians, Georgians, Greeks, Jews, and Persians.