Gorus district was established on September 9, 1930. The center of the district with an area of 752 km² was the city of Gorus, which was subordinated to the republic. The distance from there to the city of Iravan is 250 km. Bazarchay river crosses the territory of Gorus district. A part of Boyuk Isikli mountain and Uchtepe mountain (2124 m) also fall in the territory of the district.

The territory of the district was historically included in the Zangezur district of the Iravan khanate, and during Tsarist Russia it was part of the Zangezur district of Yelizavetpol (Ganja) governorate.

The toponym “gorus” (goros, khoros) was formed on the basis of the Turkish ethnonym. In official documents in the Armenian language, the name of this place is distorted and written as “Goris”.

Since 1987, the native inhabitants of the district – Azerbaijanis were forced to leave their places of residence. In 1995, the district was abolished and included in the administrative territory of the Syunik province of Armenia.