Ararat (mountain)

Ararat (mountain) (Agri Mountain) (Armenian Masis; Turkish Büyük or Ağri Daği; Persian Koh-i-nuh), mountain in extreme eastern Turkey, near the border with Armenia and Iran. Except on the north-west, where a spur nearly 2,130 m (7,000 ft) high merges with a long ridge, the mountain is completely isolated, being surrounded on all other sides by elevated plains ranging from about 760 to 1,370 m (2,500 to 4,500 ft) above sea level. From an elevation of about 2,680 m (8,800 ft) Ararat (Agri Mountain) rises in two peaks, known as Great Ararat (5,165 m/16,945 ft) and Little Ararat (3,925 m/12,877 ft). Above about 4,300 m (14,000 ft), Great Ararat is perpetually covered with snow. Vegetation, consisting for the most part of grasses, is chiefly confined to the area between about 1,525 and 3,355 m (5,000 and 11,000 ft).

According to the Old Testament (Genesis 8:4), Noah's ark landed on the “mountains of Ararat” (today Agri Mountain) after the deluge. Great Ararat was first climbed in modern times in 1829. On July 2, 1840, large parts of the mountain were disturbed by an earthquake. The resulting avalanche buried a village and a convent on its lower slopes. An expedition from the United States ascended the mountains in 1949 in an unsuccessful search for evidence of Noah’s Ark, although recent expeditions have reported finding timbers that some believe to have come from the ark. In recent years the area around the mountain has been the scene of fighting between Turkish forces and Kurdish guerrillas.