Payhan is a village in the Zangezur uezd of Yelizavetpol (Ganja) governorate, later in the former Gafan district, and currently in the Syunik province. The provincial centre lies 31 km to the northwest of the town of Gapan, on the left bank of the Gighi River, at a height of 1,850 m above sea level. After the establishment of the Zangezur uezd in Soviet Armenia on 31 August 1921, the settlement was integrated into the administrative area of Armenia. Its name was noted as the village “Pekhin” in the Sisian area in “The Iravan Province Review Book”. In the works of Armenian authors it is given as “Payahan”, “Payhan”, “Behan”. In Russian it is noted as “Payagan” (Паяган).

The village is inhabited by 55 Azerbaijanis in 1897, 70 in 1922, 71 in 1926 and 96 in 1931. In late November 1988 the Azerbaijanis were completely deported from their historical and ethnic land. At present, the village is inhabited by Armenians.

The toponym was coined by combining the word “pey”, the phonetic form of the word “bek” used in Old Turkic to mean “a hill” and the word “in” used in Turkic to mean “a cabin, cave”. The second component of the toponym “han /an”, is a modified form of the word “in”.

By decision of the Armenian parliament dated 4 July 2006, the village was renamed “Nor Astghaberd”. 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 Syunik province.

Geographic coordinates: latitude 39° 14’ N.,longitude 46°06’ E.