From north to south, these were known as: Gulistan (Iranian, meaning "country of roses"), which was situated outside the modern NKAO, in what is now the Shahumianovsk region, and extended in the north from the River Ti or Kurak-get (or -chai), on which the town of Getashen is situated, to Mount Mrav in the west, to the east by the edge of the mountain range, and to the south by the neighbouring melikdom, Jraberd. The ruling family in Gulistan was that of Melik Beglarian (alternatively, Melik Abovian).
Jraberd (Armenian for "water fortress"), the smallest of the five, was situated in the valley of the River Terter (or Tartar), the northernmost river in NKAO, where a reservoir is sited today the southern boundary was the River Khachen. Its leading family, resident in Jraberd castle, was that of the Melik Israelians, descendants of the Prosh (or Proshian) family who had built the celebrated monastery of Ayrivank or Geghard (mid-thirteenth century), not far from Erevan. They eventually lost the region to the Mirzakhanids and the Atabegians.
Khachen (Armenian khach for cross), the neighbouring melikdom, was the largest: it stretched almost to Lake Sevan in the west, and south to the river Meghri-get or Ballu (Gargar on modern maps). The monastery of Gandsasar was situated in Khachen. In the south it took in Khankend, the modern Stepanakert. The Hasan-Jalalians, the oldest family of the region, indigenous to the area, and as a princely family traceable back to the thirteenth century, ruled in Khachen.
South of Khachen lay the small territory of Varanda, originally part of its southern neighbour, Dizak, and only given a separate identity in the early sixteenth century. The ruling family, confirmed in that capacity by Shah Abbas I, was that of the Melik Shahnazarians. In the territory of Varanda lies the modern town of Shushi (or Shusha). Farther south lay Dizak (or Thizak), ruled from their castle at Togh by the Melik Avanians. Their realm stretched from the Dizapaiti mountains to the River Hagar in the west, the lowlands in the east, and the valley of the Arax to the south.
