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Mount Ararat (Hebrew: אֲרָרָט) is the tallest peak in modern Turkey. This snow-capped, dormant volcanic cone is located in the Ağrı Province, near the northeast corner of Turkey, 16 km west of the Iranian and 32 km south of the Armenian borders.
During the time of Noah, this mountain was completely covered with water (see Hebrew: מבול, flood):
17 The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep.(Genesis 7:17-20 ESV)
During the time of Sennacherib, was the son of Sargon II, whom he succeeded on the throne of Assyria (705 BC–681 BC), Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. (cf. 2 Kings 19:36-37. The same story is mentioned in Isa 37:38).
Ararat is mentioned when the Lord spoke regarding the Utter Destruction of Babylon (Jeremiah 51 - Jeremiah 51:27 : Gen 8:4; 2 Kgs 19:37).
The name Ağrı in Turkish is said to be derived from Agir in Kurdish meaning fire, referring to Ararat being a volcano. (çiyayê agirî in Kurdish). But this derivation is uncertain, since there is no historical record of when the volcano was last active and which tribes lived in the vicinity at that time.
Technically, Ararat is a stratovolcano, formed of lava flows and pyroclastic ejecta. A smaller (3,896 m) cone, Mount "Sis", also known as "Little Ararat", rises from the same base, southeast of the main peak (Armenians sometimes call the higher peak "Masis").
The lava plateau stretches out between the two pinnacles. The last activity on the mountain was a major earthquake in July 1840 centered around the Ahora Gorge, a northeast trending chasm that drops 1,825 metres (6,000 ft) from the top of the mountain.
Noah's Ark
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| The Book of Genesis identifies the "mountains of Ararat" as the resting place of Noah's Ark after the Great Flood described there (Genesis 6-9).
From Eusebius of Caesarea's time to the present, the physical Noah's Ark has held a fascination for Christians—although not for Jews and Muslims, who seem to have felt far less impelled to seek out the remains.
In the 4th century Faustus of Byzantium was apparently the first to use the name "Ararat" to refer to a specific mountain, rather than a region, where the Ark could be seen, and told how an angel had brought a holy relic from the vessel to a pious bishop who had been unable to complete the ascent.
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The Byzantine emperor Heraclius reputedly made the trip in the 7th century, but less well-connected pilgrims had to brave uninhabited wastes, rugged terrain, snowfields, glaciers, blizzards, and, in the more hospitable areas, brigands, wars, and later, suspicious Ottoman officials. Not until the 19th century was the region settled and hospitable enough for well-heeled Westerners to seek out the Ark in earnest. |
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In 1829 Dr. Friedrich Parrott, who had made an ascent of Greater Ararat, wrote in his Journey to Ararat that "all the Armenians are firmly persuaded that Noah's Ark remains to this very day on the top of Ararat, and that, in order to preservation [sic], no human being is allowed to approach it." In 1876 James Bryce, historian, statesman, diplomat, explorer, and Professor of Civil Law at Oxford, climbed above the tree line and found a slab of hand-hewn timber, four feet long and five inches thick, which he identified as being from the Ark. In 1883, the British Prophetic Messenger and others reported that Turkish commissioners investigating avalanches had seen the Ark. |
Activity fell off in the 20th century. During the Cold War Ararat found itself on the highly sensitive Turkish/Soviet border and in the midst of Kurdish separatist activities, so that explorers were likely to find themselves in extremely hazardous situations. Former astronaut James Irwin led two expeditions to Ararat in the 1980s, was kidnapped once, and like others found no tangible evidence of the Ark. "I've done all I possibly can," he said, "but the Ark continues to elude us." (see also Searches for Noah's Ark)
The Ararat anomaly
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 Photo of The Ararat Anomaly taken by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency in 1949
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| The Ararat anomaly is an object appearing on photographs of the snowfields at the summit of Mount Ararat located on the northwest corner of the Western Plateau of Mount Ararat (approximately 39°42′10″N, 44°16′30″E) at about 4,724 meters (15,500 feet), some 2.2 km (1.4 miles) west of the 5,137 m (16,854 ft) summit, on the edge of what appears from the photographs to be a steep downward slope. It is claimed by a number of Biblical literalists that this anomaly is the remains of Noah's Ark (from the Old Testament).
According to the Defence Intelligence Agency, which has custody of the images, the anomally shows "linear facades in the glacial ice underlying more recently accumulated ice and snow".
The Ararat anomaly is sometimes confused with the Durupinar site, a feature 18 miles from the mountain that is claimed to be Noah's Ark by the adventurer Ron Wyatt and his associate David Fasold.
By the beginning of the 21st century two main candidates for exploration had emerged: the so-called Ararat anomaly near the main summit of Ararat (an "anomaly" in that it shows on aerial and satellite images as a dark blemish on the snow and ice of the peak), and the separate Durupinar site (named after its 20th-century discoverer, Turkish intelligence officer Ilhan Durupinar) near Doğubayazit, 18 miles south of the Greater Ararat summit. The Durupinar site was heavily promoted by adventurer and former nurse-anaesthetist Ron Wyatt in the 1980s and 1990s, and consists of a large boat-shaped formation jutting out of the earth and rock. It has the advantage over the Great Ararat site of being approachable—while hardly a major tourist attraction, it receives a steady stream of visitors. Durupinar has been identified as a natural formation, but it continues to have its advocates.
In 2004 Honolulu-based businessman Daniel McGivern announced he would finance a $900,000 expedition to the peak of Greater Ararat in July that year to investigate the "Ararat anomaly"—he had previously paid for commercial satellite images of the site. After much initial fanfare he was refused permission by the Turkish authorities, as the summit is inside a restricted military zone. The expedition was subsequently labelled a "stunt" by National Geographic News, which pointed out that the expedition leader, a Turkish academic named Ahmet Ali Arslan, had previously been accused of faking photographs of the Ark. The Defence Intelligence Agency, which has custody of the images, has analysed the anomaly as showing "linear facades in the glacial ice underlying more recently accumulated ice and snow." Throughout the centuries there have been various and conflicted claims of Ark sightings, but they were all ultimately shown to be at best false, and at worst hoaxes.
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Overview
The anomaly is located on the northwest corner of the Western Plateau of Mount Ararat (approximately 39°42′10″N, 44°16′30″E) at about 15,500 feet (4,724 meters), some 2.2 kilometers west of the 16,854 feet (5,137 metres) summit, on the edge of what appears from the photographs to be a steep downward slope. It was first filmed during a U.S. Air Force aerial reconnaissance mission in 1949 — the Ararat massif sits on the Turkish/Soviet border, and was thus an area of military interest. The film was given a routine classification of "secret" as were subsequent photographs taken in 1956, 1973, 1976, 1990 and 1992, by aircraft and satellites. Six frames from the 1949 footage were released under the Freedom of Information Act to Porcher Taylor, a scholar at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies specializing in satellite intelligence and diplomacy, in 1995.
A joint research project was later established between Insight Magazine and Space Imaging (now GeoEye), using the IKONOS satellite. IKONOS, on its maiden voyage, captured the anomaly on August 5 and September 13, 2000. The Mount Ararat area also has been imaged by France's SPOT satellite in September 1989, Landsat in the 1970s and NASA's Space shuttle in 1994, as well as military satellite images captured by the CIA's KH-9 (Keyhole 9) in 1973 and KH-11 (Keyhole 11) in 1976 and 1990–1992.
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History
Over the centuries, Mount Ararat has been passed back and forth like a ping-pong ball. The first unified state to rule the region surrounding the mountain was ancient Urartu.
After the decline of Urartu following invasions by Scythians and the Medes in 585 BC, a semi-independent Armenian state emerged under the rule of the Orontid Dynasty, the members of which frequently intermarried with their overlords, the Achaemenid Persians. After the defeat of the Achaemenids by Alexander the Great in 330 BC, the Orontids gained autonomy, albeit under Macedonian influence.
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| Antiochus III the Great briefly subjugated Armenia in 201 BC ending Orontid rule in region. After the defeat of Antiochus in the Battle of Magnesia, a new independent Armenian Kingdom emerged in 198 BC that lasted for over six centuries until 428, briefly being annexed to the Roman Empire by Trajan from 114 to 118. Following the partition of the Armenian Kingdom between the Roman Empire and Sassanid Persia in 428, the region was a constant battleground between the two, and afterwards between the Arab Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire.
Ararat was retaken by a new Armenian Kingdom under the Bagratuni Dynasty early in the ninth century A.D., which was annexed by Byzantium in 1045, which then lost the territory to the Seljuk Turks following the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. The Georgian Kingdom took the region from the Seljuks from the late 12th century to the early 13th century, until various Mongol rulers of the Ilkhanate, including Tamerlane, took control of the area in the 13th and 14th centuries. The region was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1517 and often fought over and taken by the Safavids.
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| In 1918, in the aftermath of World War I, the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the October Revolution, the area became part of the Democratic Republic of Armenia, but the republic was short-lived. With the invasion of the Red Army, the area became part of the Soviet Union.
Following the Treaty of Kars in 1923, the area was divided up between Turkey and the USSR, and the new border, which became internationally recognised, placed Ararat on the Turkish side. Even after this, most Armenians still claimed the mountain. At that time, Armenia was joined together with Georgia and Azerbaijan under the Transcaucasian SFSR. When the TSFSR was dissolved in 1936 and each of the three countries became separate Soviet Republics (Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, and Georgian SSR), Armenia depicted Ararat on its coat of arms. Turkey protested against this symbolic gesture on the grounds that Ararat was part of its territory, but the Kremlin refused to take action. When Armenia regained its independence from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991, it formally stated that it did not recognize the Treaty of Kars.
Symbolism
Ararat rises from a flat plain and dominates the skyline of Armenia's capital, Yerevan. Since ancient times, Ararat has been revered by the Armenians as their spiritual home. Today, it is the national symbol of Armenia, where it is sometimes called Masis (Մասիս). Mount Ararat is featured in the center of the Coat of Arms of Armenia. The mountain is often depicted by Armenian artists on paintings, obsidian engravings, backgammon boards and other artifacts. From Yerevan, and throughout much of the country, citizens and tourists get a clear glimpse of both peaks, Mount Ararat and Little Ararat (Sis). Khor Virap, a monastery located just across the border from Turkey, is particularly popular with tourists for its view of the volcano.
In Abrahamic religions the mountain is also thought to be the place Noah landed after the flood. (Genesis 8:4): "Then the ark rested in the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month on the mountains of Ararat."
Elevation
An elevation of 5,165 m for Mount Ararat is given by some authorities, but others, including Encyclopedia Britannica give 5,137 m (16,854 ft), and public domain and verifiable SRTM data shows that this lower elevation is more accurate.
Climbing Mount Ararat
The climb is long, but there is a fairly easy route from the South in late summer for climbers who are familiar with the use of axe and crampons. There are two possible campsites on the mountain, and the glacier begins around 4,800 meters. It is difficult for non-Turkish nationals to obtain permission to climb from the Turkish authorities, and the process of obtaining this permission is complicated. For more information, see summitpost.
Reaching the summit
Dr. Friedrich Parrot, with the help of Khachatur Abovian, was the first explorer in modern times to reach the summit of Mount Ararat, with the onset of Russian rule in 1829. He was followed in 1856 by a group of five explorers led by Major Robert Stuart. |
References in Art and Literature
- The mountain was the setting for the legend of the ten thousand martyrs of Mount Ararat. In the comic opera Iolanthe, by Gilbert and Sullivan (1882), there is a character named George Mountararat, who is an Earl and a leader of the British House of Peers.
- The Armenian-American Metal Band System of a Down wrote the song "Holy Mountains" about Mt. Ararat and its significance to Armenians.
- The videogame Keio_Flying_Squadron on the Mega_CD had a multi-sided battle for Mt. Ararat, between the United States, Russia, the raccoon/tanuki leader Dr. Pon, and the hero, Rami. Atop the mountain is Noah's Ark, that contains a secret that Dr. Pon wants.
- Mount_Arreat in Diablo II may actually be inspired by Mt. Ararat, including the fact that it is glacier covered, and very sacred.
- In the novel Declare by Tim Powers (2001), Mt. Ararat is the residence of a race of fallen angels, which the novel also calls Djinn.
Notes
- Ağrı Dağı - Jeolojik Yapısı Retrieved 08/18/2009
- Ararat Global Volcanism Program — Department of Mineral Sciences — National Museum of Natural History — Smithsonian Institution Retrieved 08/18/2009
- Mount Ararat | Mt. Ararat pictures and on-line cam in Armenia Retrieved 08/18/2009
- Ağrı Dağı (Mount Ararat) Retrieved 08/18/2009
- Mount Ararat: Dangers / Problems The Search For Noah's Ark Retrieved 08/18/2009
- Ararat/Ağri Daği www.livius.org Retrieved 08/18/2009
- Ararat (mountain) MSN Encarta Retrieved 08/18/2009
- Mount Ararat Expedition Sogutlucesme Cad. Karatekin Is Merkezi Retrieved 08/18/2009
- Mount Ararat (Agri Dagi), Turkey : Image of the Day NASA Earth Observatory Retrieved 08/18/2009
- Mount Ararat mountain, Turkey Turkish Ağrı Dağı, Encylopedia Britanica Retrieved 08/18/2009
- ARARAT Trip Report, August 4 - August 9, 2007. Retrieved 08/18/2009
- Climbing Ararat: Then and Now By Philip K. Ketchian, Volume 71, No. 52, The Armenian Weekly Newspaper, December 24, 2005 Retrieved 08/18/2009
- Ararat, Mount :: Mount Ararat (mountain, Turkey) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia Retrieved 08/18/2009
- Blue Letter Bible. "Dictionary and Word Search for 'ararat' in the ESV". Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2009. Retrieved 08/18/2009
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