Mount Aragats

"Aragats" redirects here. For other uses, see Aragats (disambiguation).
Mount Aragats

Mount Aragats as seen from Etchmiadzin
Elevation 4,090 m (13,420 ft)[1][2]
Prominence 2,143 m (7,031 ft)[3]
Listing Country high point
Ultra
Location
Mount Aragats

Location in Armenia

Location Aragatsotn, Armenia
Range Armenian Highlands
Coordinates 40°32′00″N 44°12′00″E / 40.53333°N 44.20000°ECoordinates: 40°32′00″N 44°12′00″E / 40.53333°N 44.20000°E[2]
Geology
Type Stratovolcano
Age of rock Holocene[2]
Last eruption Unknown [2]

Mount Aragats (Armenian: Արագած, also: Ալագյազ - Alagyaz[4]) is a large andesitic-to-dacitic[5] stratovolcano in northwest Armenia about 40 km northwest of the capital city of Yerevan. It is the highest point in Armenia, located in the province of Aragatsotn, northwest from Yerevan. On its slopes are the Byurakan Observatory and the medieval Amberd Fortress. The observatory is a historically significant facility responsible for a number of important photographic surveys.

The 4,090 m (13,419 ft) high main edifice of Aragats is dissected by glaciers and is of Pliocene-to-Pleistocene age. However, parasitic cones and fissures are on all sides of the volcano and were the source of large lava flows that descended its lower flanks.

Several of these were considered to be of Holocene age, but later Potassium-Argon dating indicated mid- to late-Pleistocene ages. The youngest lower-flank flows have not been precisely dated but are constrained as occurring between the end of the late-Pleistocene and 3000 BC (Kharakanian et al., 2003). A 13-km-long, WSW-ENE-trending line of craters and pyroclastic cones cuts across the northern crater rim and is the source of young lava flows and lahars; the latter were considered to be characteristic of Holocene summit eruptions. The Western and Southern slopes of Mt. Aragats are home to many petroglyphs dating from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age.[6]

Nearby towns

The towns around the mountain include Ashtarak to its southeast, Aparan to its northeast, Artik to its northwest, and Talin to its southwest. On the other sides of the mountains are villages and towns.

Legend of Illuminator's lantern

Legend holds that when Saint Gregory the Illuminator prayed one day on Mount Aragats a miraculous ever-burning lantern hanging from the heavens came down to shed light on him.

Armenians believe that the Illuminator’s lantern is still there, and only those pure in heart and spirit can see the eternal lantern — the symbol of hopes and dreams of the nation.

Mount Aragats, topographic representation
Panorama of the Aragats

See also

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mount Aragats.