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ABOUT ARARAT

 



In the heart of Greater Armenia is a very high mountain, on which Noah's Ark is said to have rested. It is so broad and long that it takes more than two days to go round it. On the summit the snow lies so deep all the year that no one can ever climb it. But on the lower slopes the herbage is so lush and luxurious that, in summer, all the beasts from far and near resort here and yet the supply never fails.
Marco Polo CE c. 1295, quoted by Bryce.

 

Mount Ararat (Agri Dagi), height 5137m, is positioned at latitude 44 degrees 20' east, longitude 39 degrees20' north. The main peak, Büyük (Great) Agri, is Turkey’s highest mountain. Great Ararat is an extinct volcanic cone, accompanied by a secondary cone, Little Ararat (Küçük Agri), which rises to 3,885m just 12km southeast of its larger brother. Together they cover about 250 sq km and rise spectacularly 4,250m above the surrounding plain at Dogubeyazit. Ararat is the final volcano in a fault-line chain which includes Mounts Erciyes, Suphan and Nemrut and which crosses Turkey from the southwest.

Ararat comprises basalt and andesite and is a major source of obsidian, used by early man for the manufacture of tools. Fresh lava flows date from the last eruption on 2nd June 1840, when Ahora town and a monastery on the northeast slopes were buried. The summit is permanently glaciated; the longest glacier descends to an altitude of 2,500m and is reputed to contain the remains of Noah's Ark.

 
From the distance, Agri look like a smooth cone of Christmas pudding topped by permanent snow which in winter spreads to smother the peak in sparkling white sauce. At most seasons the ‘brandy’ is lit, and the peak gives off a plume of smoke, swirling into rings of cloud. On the approach, crossing the savannahs, are the currants in the pudding - blackened boulders and ash thrown off by past eruptions, the last in 1840.

What to read
The Mountains of Turkey, Karl Smith, Cicerone, Cumbria, UK, 1994
Transcaucasia and Ararat,, James Bryce, Macmillan and Co, London, 1896.
Agridagi Efsanesi, Yasar Kemal, Toros Yayinlari, Istanbul, 1990.
My Travels in Turkey,Denis Hills, Geo Allen and Unwin, London, 1964.
Travels in the central Caucasus and Bashan,Douglas W Freshfield, London, 1869