Mountains of Ararat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mountains of Ararat is the place named in the Book of Genesis where Noah's ark came to rest after the great flood (Genesis 8:4). Abrahamic tradition associates the mountains of Ararat with Mount Ararat in Turkey located 750 miles (1200 kilometers) northeast of Jerusalem. Mount Ararat was, for many centuries, part of Armenia, but through several conquests it eventually fell into the hands of the Ottoman Empire and later the Persian Empire (Iran). After the Russo-Persian War, 1826-1828 and the Treaty of Turkmanchai it was incorporated into the Russian Empire as part of the Armenian Oblast and later the Erivan Governate. After World War I, it came under the administration of the Democratic Republic of Armenia as part of the Ararat province but was ceded to Turkey by the Soviet Union in the Treaty of Kars.
Historians have long sought to corroborate the biblical reference to the "mountains of Ararat" with Mount Ararat, or to ascertain the actual location of the mountains mentioned in the account. The Book of Jubilees specifies that the Ark came to rest on one of the peaks of the "Mountains of Ararat" called "Lubar".
Some have sought to connect the name "Ararat" with ancient states in the area such as Urartu, and the even older "Aratta" found in Sumerian records. These cultures were centered around Mount Van in Armenia during Biblical times (currently in Turkey). Mount Ararat has the distinction of holding this tradition among its surrounding cultures for centuries, and is also geographically within ancient Urartu, giving it the most legitimate potential claim as the Biblical Ararat. However, the biblical account could plausibly have been intended refer to any of the mountain ranges associated with Urartu.
Other potential Ararat candidates have been proposed over the millennia at locales as widely distributed as Ethiopia, Ireland, and Iran.
The Latin Vulgate says "requievitque arca [...] super montes Armeniae", which means literally "and the ark rested [...] on the mountains of Armenia", which was corrected to "... mountains of Ararat" (montes Ararat) in the Nova Vulgata (New Vulgate).
