Mount Ararat
The Mount Ararat (Armenian: ԱրҡրԀҡԿ; Turkish: Ağrı Dağı) is the highest peak in Turkey, with 5137 m a.s.l. no. m., located in the eastern part of the country, very close to the border with Iran and Armenia. It is an inactive volcano whose top is covered with perpetual snow.
Despite scholarly consensus that the "mountains of Ararat" of the Book of Genesis do not refer specifically to this mountain, Mount Ararat has nonetheless been widely accepted in Judaism, Christianity and Islam as the resting place of Noah's Ark.
Toponymy
The name Ararat is related to Urartu (Armenian: Urartu), an early Armenian kingdom (860 BC-590 BC). In Armenian, each one of the two peaks that make up Ararat has an individual name, Mount Masis is called Mount Masis (, the highest peak, and Sis, the lowest. In Turkish, they are called Büyük Ağrı (Ağrı the Great) and Küçük Ağrı (Ağrı the Little), respectively. It is the main identification symbol of Armenia. According to Turkish-Armenian etymologist Sevan Nişanyan, its Turkish name, Ağrı Dağı, comes from an ancient village, Ağori, 2,300 m above the hill that disappeared in an avalanche in 1840. Other theories common people speak of Ağır Dağ (heavy mountain) and Eğri Dağ (crooked mountain or curved mountain)
Geographic location
It is located in the far east of Turkey, 16 km west of the Iranian border and 32 km south of the Armenian border. This mountain is considered one of the most unique on Earth due to its broad base and the predominance of its silhouette in the landscape.
A smaller cone (3896 m a.s. n. m.), Mount Sis, rises to the southeast of the main peak. A lava plateau stretches between the two pinnacles.
Volcanic activity
Technically, Ararat is a stratovolcano, formed from lava flows and ejections of pyroclastic materials.
The last recorded volcanic activity on the mountain was a major earthquake in July 1840 centered around the Ahora Gorge, a long northeast-trending chasm that drops about 1,825 m from the mountain's summit.
Events on location
Noah's Ark
From the Book of Genesis, Christian tradition interprets this mountain as the place where Noah's Ark landed after the Universal Flood described in this sacred book.
In 1829, Frederich Parrot, a German professor of natural philosophy, visited the Monastery of Saint James in the town of Ahora, located on Mount Ararat itself, writing in his book that the monks had obtained the necessary wood for the construction from the monastery of the remains of Noah's Ark. Eleven years later, in 1840, the monastery and all its monks disappeared after the last eruption of Ararat.
In the last fifty years, some controversial photographs appeared in which, according to some researchers, some remains of wood were seen in the foothills of this mountain that they believe could have belonged to the Ark. However, the evidence presented was not considered scientifically conclusive. In 1950, the French mountaineer Fernand Navarra found some remains of wood that he later analyzed using the carbon-14 dating method, finding that these remains were more than 7,000 years old. However, apart from the pieces of wood, there was no other scientific evidence to show that it was used in the construction of an Ark. Likewise, in the highest part of Mount Ararat, towards the eastern part of Turkey, it is postulated that there are images that are attributed to a great "anomaly" and that it could well be Noah's Ark, according to research that Porcher Taylor has been carrying out. with satellite images from 1995. The size of the formation according to these images, 309 meters, would be equivalent to the 300 by 50 cubits that Noah's Ark measured, as explained in the book of Genesis. However, this has not been archaeologically corroborated either, nor have the images been conclusive. Thus, up to now there is really no reliable proof that demonstrates the real existence of the Ark, and that is accepted by Archeology.
The Ten Thousand Martyrs of Mount Ararat
The legend of "The Ten Thousand Martyrs of Mount Ararat" also originates from this mountain. This tells that they were Roman soldiers, led by Acacio, who converted to Christianity. Therefore, by remaining firm in their faith and thus refusing to worship the pagan idols that Emperor Hadrian adored, he ordered them to be crucified on that mountain.
The martyrs are commemorated by the Catholic Church, but not by the Orthodox Church or the Armenian Apostolic Church, so some believe that the story does not have a firm historical basis.
The event is the subject of the painting, "The Ten Thousand Martyrs of Mount Ararat" by Vittore Carpaccio.
Ascents
The first person to ascend it was the German Friedrich von Parrot on September 27, 1829 and the first person to make a winter ascent to the top was Bozkurt Ergör, the then president of the Turkish Mountaineering Federation, the February 21, 1970.
Symbolism
Ararat belongs territorially to Turkey, however, it is part of Historical Armenia and is the national symbol of Armenia. The mount appears in the center of the Armenian Coat of Arms. The mountain is clearly visible from most of the Republic of Armenia, including its capital Yerevan, and is often depicted by Armenian artists in paintings, obsidian engravings, and other objects. After the Armenian genocide, Armenia lost the territory where Ararat stands, which remained within Turkish territory.
In the arts
Mount Ararat appears as the setting and one of the main protagonists of the epic novel by the famous Turkish writer Yaşar Kemal, "The Legend of Mount Ağrı". The novel has inspired a film and an opera, both with the same name.