Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat – Or rather Eastern Armenia?

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According to a popular story, Noah’s protective ark was stranded on Mount Ararat when the global flood subsided. The Bible calls Ararat. But this name has very little to do with this “selected” mountain.

The tourist magnet Mount Ararat

Mount Ararat is known to the world as the mountain where Noah’s Ark came to rest after the Flood and ran aground. This mountain is now located in Anatolia, the far east of Turkey on the border with Armenia. Mountain climbers and adventurers set out in droves to perhaps discover traces of the giant ark that was supposedly “stranded” there. Entire research teams set out and searched the areas around the mountain using the most modern equipment. There has been no success so far. But that didn’t detract from this region as a tourist destination, because after all it is “Ararat”.

The Bible provides information about Ararat

Mount Ararat exposes at least a kind of double standard. On the one hand, the Bible is now predominantly described as a collection of stories by imaginative authors from antiquity, and on the other hand, individual statements are still taken at face value in order to serve narratives formulated in current times. This also applies to Ararat in the Bible and the resulting Mount Ararat in what is now eastern Turkey.

The Bible mentions Ararat four times

In the Bible, the term “Ararat” is only mentioned in four places. However, nowhere in the scripture is there any explicit mention of a specific mountain.

Genesis 8:4
“And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.“

2 Kings 19:37
“And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.“

Isaiah 37:38
“And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia: and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.“

Jeremiah 51:27
“Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillers.“

The English Bible King James Version does not write “Ararat” but “land of Armenia” in 2 Kings 19:37 and Isaiah 37:38. In the Bible, Ararat is associated with a mountain, a country and a kingdom. Therefore, “mountain” Ararat is not even mentioned in the scripture.

Ararat points to Armenia

In the Hebrew of the so-called Masoretic text, the word “Ararat” also has the corresponding word “ararat” (אֲרָרָט). By definition in Hebrew, this describes an area in eastern Armenia and was originally applied to “foreign origin” as well as simply “Armenia”.

In the Catholic or Latin Bible version of the “Vulgate” the word was translated as “montes Armeniae” (“mountains of Armenia”). In the “Nova Vulgata” (from 1979) this was changed to “montes Ararat” (“Mountains of Ararat”). The creation of confusion by the Roman Catholic Church, on the other hand, is anything but a novelty (Info).

Today’s Armenia originally had a completely different shape and, above all, a larger area. Mount Ararat was once in Armenian territory. Even today, a place called Ararat on the western border of Armenia is reminiscent of the unobstructed view of the famous mountain.

In ancient times, this area was called Urartu and was most extensive under King Rusa I (715-713 BC). During this time, Mount Ararat was located in the east of the country.

Mount Ararat is still “very young”

The current name Ararat could not be derived from the original name of the mountain. The Kurds called the mountain “Ciyaye Agiri” (“fiery mountain”), the Armenians referred to the mountain as “Masis” and the Turks use the name “Büyük Agn Dagi”.

There is an explanation for the fact that Mount Ararat has never been spoken of at all. The mountain in what is now eastern Turkey only received its current name in the Middle Ages. Only since then has this place been interpreted as the port of Noah’s Ark (Source). Before that there was no talk of it at all. First the name was assigned and then the thesis about the possible location of the ark.

It also took a very long time before anyone actually set out to climb Mount Ararat. The records for a first ascent, including by Friedrich Parrot and Khachatur Abwojan, only go back to 1829.

Mount Ararat rather unsuitable

With a height of 5137 m, Ararat is the highest mountain in Turkey. As a volcano, it also has the typical steep slopes. Setting the ark down on the summit or in the immediate surroundings would be more than “clumsy”. In addition, an expedition to climb the mountain takes several days. All of this can only be done with the appropriate equipment and skills. Accordingly, the descent was much more than just challenging for people and animals.

Mount Ararat is out of the question

To date, archeology has not found any evidence of an ark. Neither in the form of remains found nor traces left by humans or animals.

Given the biblical descriptions, the geological circumstances and the late naming of this mountain, it seems very unlikely that today’s Ararat could have anything to do with the Ararat of the Bible.

The view of the east of Armenia

Due to the biblical descriptions of a kingdom, a country and a mountain range, all of which refer to Armenia in the original basic text, it is worth taking a look at other promising places in this mountainous country.

Armenia certainly offers a very suitable “candidate” for the possible landing site of Noah’s Ark. This is located in what is now eastern Armenia, close to the border with Azerbaijan and not far from the now contested conclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. It is the mountain Ughtasar (“Uchtasar”), in today’s Syunik province, near the city of Sisian (Source). An area that receives little attention from tourists and is primarily known to archaeologists.

This mountain is so flat near its summit that water can even collect into a small lake. Another special feature is that the summit can be reached relatively easily from the valley, almost like a natural, winding ramp. Driving up with an off-road vehicle presents no difficulties. This mountain and its “attractions” are well known to the local residents. The flattened summit region is encircled by a towering ring of rocks on the side of the climb. An additional protection from strong winds, or even the powerful waves of the flood, if you will.

A speculation about Noah’s ambitions

Isn’t it obvious that at the point where Noah and his family had solid ground under their feet again after the flood, given the destroyed surface of the earth, they had no great ambition to wander into the wide, now uninhabited world? Only eight people remained during the flood disaster. And the flock of selected animal pairs. The vegetation was probably largely devastated. Plant recovery usually happens quickly, but this still took time. It would be understandable if Noah and his family had settled together near the ark instead of immediately moving out individually into the now rather unfriendly world.

For archaeologists, Ughtasar is a treasure trove

The changing region of rocky peaks and flat grassy areas on Mount Ughtasar offers archaeologists a veritable treasure trove of “Stone Age” remains. More than 2,000 rocks are painted or carved with figures, animals and many other symbols (Source). The images of goats are particularly dominant. Their number is so large that local residents refer to this huge collection of historical drawings as “Itsagir” (“Goat Letters”).

Good-humored people

Individual depictions indicate that the mood is obviously so good that they show people dancing happily. Not exactly a testament to a hard and depressed life.

Unusual animal species

Some animal illustrations show exaggerated horns of ibex and goats. But there are also animal images that one would not expect in the region of Armenia.

“Adam and Eve” with snake

A rock has a special pattern. There are people, a tree and snakes to see. This formation marked in the rock is called “Adam and Eve” by the locals.

The “Stonehedge” of Armenia

The culture of the Armenians goes back far into the past and has amazed some researchers. Paris Misaki Herouni has dealt intensively with Armenian history. An Armenian, born in December 1933 (died 2008), physicist and engineer during Soviet times.

Herouni was a member of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences. He held over 20 patents and published more than 340 scientific papers. As a physicist with a focus on radio astronomy, Herouni studied the Carahunge rock monuments found in Armenia (Source). A large number of upright rocks, each with a larger circular hole at the top. This area is only around 15km from Mount Ukhtasar.

Rock formations for astronomy

Herouni put together a team of researchers, including from Moscow and Switzerland, to examine the rock monument in more detail. The first expedition started in 1994. They quickly discovered that these rock formations were used for observing the sky. While some rocks are aligned in their arrangement with the path of the sun, other formations have the moon, the planets and also the stars in their sights. The heights of the rocks vary between 0.5m and 3m and weigh up to 10 tons. They are made of basalt and come from the neighboring valley. The researchers numbered more than 220 rocks.

The commonality of languages

Herouni also placed a research focus on the spread and development of languages ​​and characters. The Armenian researcher is likely to benefit from the discoveries of archaeologist Dr. Samuel Kramer knew in 1952. Kramer conducted research at the site of the historic city of Ur. In the Bible, this place is mentioned as the hometown of Abraham from the time of the Third Dynasty Sumerians.

Sumerian stone tablet

The researcher discovered stone tablets with cuneiform writing from the time of the “Golden Age of the Sumerians”. The first eleven lines on these stone tablets describe a period of peace and prosperity for the people. A life without fear. Line 146 was not complete, a section was missing. It read “Everyone […] a language”. There was room for speculation as to what the missing word could be. Kramer had to wait almost 16 years for the answer. He then found another recording in the same area, this time on a blackboard. Clearly read “The entirety of humanity had one language”.

The first stone tablet found revealed even more information. Lines 154 to 156 say: “My Lord Eridu changed the language of their mouths, and this led to disputes. Until then, everyone had spoken one language.”

A possible origin

The Armenian researcher Herouni found that the currently known languages ​​and their characters could be reduced to the common denominator of Armenian origin. Based on his research results, Herouni created a map showing the distribution of the population on Earth.

It is obvious that the idea that the cradle of humanity did not originate in central Africa, but rather in the plateau of Armenia, is not well received by the self-consistent science. If you compare this possibility with the reports in the Bible and the exclusion criteria for the mountain with its young name Ararat, and if you take into account the results of further archaeological research, then this representation does not seem so far-fetched.

There will be no final certainty

Whether this or that place was the actual final stop for the indefinite journey of Noah’s Ark in the global flood does not seem to be very significant. If this were of great importance, the Bible would provide precise information about it. What is fairly certain is that today’s Mount Ararat has nothing whatsoever to do with Noah’s Ark. Nor the rather unreal surroundings of this volcano.

The fact that this mountain was only given the name Ararat at a very later time would therefore appear to be a diversionary tactic and a “motivation slower” to even want to research the truth. Because the “answers” ​​are ready and the number of visitors to Mount Ararat is quite large. For the benefit of the region around Turkey’s highest mountain, this mountain is definitely a tourist attraction. But nothing more.

Bible verses from King James Version