Nurnus is a village in the Iravan uezd of the former Iravan governorate, later in the former Ellar (Kotayk, Abovyan) district, and currently in the Kotayk province. The provincial centre lies 20 km to the northwest of the town of Akhta (Hrazdan), at a height of 1,450 m above sea level. Its name was marked on the five-verst map of the Caucasus. The name of the village is mentioned in the works of Armenian authors as “Nornus”.

The village was solely inhabited by Azerbaijanis: 372 in 1873, 416 in 1886, 550 in 1897, 457 in 1904, 512 in 1914 and by 642 Azerbaijanis in 1916. In 1918 the Azerbaijanis were deported having been exposed to aggression by Armenian armed groups, and the Armenians who had been moved from Türkiye were settled in the village. After the establishment of Soviet power in the territory of present-day Armenia, the surviving Azerbaijanis were able to return to their ancestral lands. Along with the Armenians, the village was inhabited by 52 Azerbaijanis in 1922, 61 in 1926 and by 96 Azerbaijanis in 1931. According to the decision of the USSR Council of Ministers “On the resettlement of collective farmers and other Azerbaijani population from the Armenian SSR in the Kur-Araz lowland of the Azerbaijan SSR” dated 23 December 1947, the Azerbaijani population of the village was forcibly deported to Azerbaijan. At present, the village is inhabited by Armenians.

The toponym was coined from the word “nur”/ “nor”used in Old Turkic to mean “a lake” and from the Arabic word “naus” (nus), which means “a minaret construction with a sharp edge”, and means “a building on the edge of a lake or canal”. The word “nur / nor” in the toponym is used in Azerbaijani as “nohur” (a canal, pond).

Currently, the name of the settlement is written as “Nurnus” in official documents in Armenian. According to the law “On the administrative-territorial division of the Republic of Armenia” dated 7 November 1995, it was integrated into the administrative area of the Kotayk province.

Geographic coordinates: latitude 40°21’ N., longitude 44°36’ E.