PART 1
ARAGATS, NOT ARARAT
NOVEMBER 11, 2026 | BY KEVIN MCFARLAND
OCTOBER 2026 | BY KEVIN MCFARLAND
For centuries, the search for Noah’s Ark has been fixated on three main candidates, all to no avail. One beset by glaciers and inhopitable terrain, another a boat-shaped earthen formation found in a low valley, and a third enshrined in the Quran, yet lying outside the biblical "Ararat."
With this fixation on the wrong mountains, I believe the true landing place has been hiding in plain sight.
In this opening section, we will return to the foundational text of Genesis to establish exactly what the Bible demands of the Ark's resting place. We will then examine why Mount Ararat fails as a logical and geological candidate. From there, we will build a case for Mount Aragats, the throne-shaped volcano that aligns with medieval eyewitness accounts, ancient pilgrimage paths, and the, most importantly, the biblical criteria for the mountain of Noah's Ark. While this section focuses only on the Biblical, historical and geographic groundwork, later sections will unveil the staggering archaeological discoveries that point toward a profound conclusion in one of the greatest searches of all time.
SECTION 1.1
THE BIBLE SAYS SO
"THE MOUNTAINS OF ARARAT"
The bible serves as the bedrock for this entire investigation. If archaeological or geological findings contradict what is written in the first ten chapters of Genesis, I will stop looking for connections to Aragats. However, a careful reading reveals that Scripture itself actually builds a compelling geographical case.
Consider Genesis 8:4: “and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.” The Genesis flood account explicitly uses the plural "mountains," indicating that Ararat describes a broader geographic region rather than a single peak that assumed the name centuries later. Historians and biblical scholars widely agree that this correlates to the ancient kingdom of Urartu, or Ararat, which dominated the area during certain periods of the Old Testament. (Figure 1) We even see this regional designation reinforced in 2 Kings 19:37, which describes assassins escaping into the "land of Ararat."
However, the name Ararat actually precedes Urartu by hundreds, if not thousands, of years. When Moses penned Genesis, he was referring to a much older regional title. After all, the Kingdom of Urartu doesn't come into power until the 9th century BC, 500 years after Moses. [1] Ararat is instead deeply tied to the ancient land of Aratta. This kingdom plays a major role in one of the oldest texts ever recorded, the Sumerian epic "Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta" dating back to 2200 BC. [2] As historian Martiros Kavoukjian noted in his research, that "It follows, then, that Ararta turns out to be the oldest city-state of the Armenian Highland known so far, dating from the beginning of the third and possibly from the cud of the fourth millenium B.C.. The memory of which persists, most probably, in the name Ayrarat (Ararat)." [3]
Ararat, therefore, stands as the oldest known regional state of the Armenian Highlands. Because of this, we can confidently place the landing site within this broader ancient territory, a vast landscape that encompasses modern Armenia and parts of eastern Turkey today. (Figure 2)
FIGURE 1: Map of the Kingdom of Urartu (9th century BC). I included the locations of Mount Aragats, Mount Ararat, and Mount Cudi.
Base Map Source: Atlas of the Soviet Republic of Armenia (1961)
FIGURE 2: Map of the region of Ararat (Aratta). I included the locations of Mount Aragats, Mount Ararat, and Mount Cudi. Notice Mount Cudi is not in the territory of Ararat.
Base Map Source: biblemapper.com
The Mount Ararat looms over the landscape today, but as we will uncover, wasn't the case a few thousand years ago.
THE TALLEST MOUNTAIN
Now this brings us to the very next verse, one that provides such critical, though often overlooked, detail. Genesis 8:5 states, “The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.”
The timeline provided in Genesis is remarkably precise. The Ark grounded on the seventeenth day of the seventh month, yet it took nearly two and a half months for the surrounding peaks to finally emerge from the water. This detail does more than simply imply; it explicitly says that the Ark came to rest on the highest elevation in the entire Ararat region. It did not settle on a random hillside, but rather grounded out on the dominant summit.
This single geographic reality immediately disqualifies Mount Judi (Cudi), the traditional landing site cited in the Quran, and one that is becoming increasingly popular among Christians. Mount Judi fails both biblical criteria: it is neither located in the ancient region of Ararat, nor is it anywhere near the tallest peak in the area. The same logic applies to the popular Durupinar site. The fact that this widely publicized, boat-shaped formation rests down in a valley rather than on a towering peak should close the case entirely.
For the past few centuries, ark researchers and explorers have correctly applied the criteria established in Genesis by searching the tallest mountain in the area: Mount Ararat. However, they have done so under one massive misconception.
While Mount Ararat is the highest peak in the region today, geological and archaeological evidence dictates this was not the case during the time of Noah.
A small part of the "Mountains of Ararat" as seen from the lower slopes of Aragats
SECTION 1.2
THE CASE AGAINST ARARAT
A petroglyph found on Mount Aragats. Over a thousand have been recorded on this single mountain.
The dragon stone distribution map, with the Erzurum-Kars plateau marked in red
A vishapakar, also known as dragon stones, are unique monuments found only in the "mountains of Ararat"
ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD
Perhaps the most telling piece of evidence against Ararat is the complete absence of ancient rock art. There are zero recorded petroglyphs on or anywhere around the slopes of Mount Ararat. This might not seem unusual until one looks at the surrounding mountains. Tens of thousands of petroglyphs have been discovered and documented across the Armenian Highlands, particularly on the slopes of Aragats, the Geghama Mountains, and the Ughtasar Mountains [7]. These carvings date from the early Neolithic to the Bronze Age, roughly 5,000 to 9,000 years old, and they frequently depict animals, human figures, and constellations. The fact that not a single one has been found on Ararat is deafeningly silent.
On the other end of the spectrum, Petroglyphs serve as windows into the past, where ancient people carved their local geography directly into stone. For instance, depictions of Mount Aragats, and other mountains [8] have been discovered, often carved in a circular manner with four quadrangles to represent its four distinct peaks [8]. Yet, not a single petroglyph depicts Mount Ararat. This is astonishing when you consider how iconic the mountain is today, seen on everything from entry visa stamps to countless paintings in the Yerevan art market. I would argue the reason for this ancient omission is quite simple: Ararat did not have the towering prominence it has today. It was merely a shell of its current height, or as some geological models suggest, a mountain that formed entirely after the flood.
Another crucial archaeological clue is tied to the construction and placement of massive megaliths known as vishapakars, or dragon stones. These monuments will play a prominent role later in this study, but for now, it is important to note that they are found only in the Armenian Highlands. Nearly two hundred have been found across at least fifteen different mountain systems in Armenia and eastern Turkey, with the highest concentration sitting on Aragats. Yet, not a single one has ever been discovered on Ararat.
While studying a map of dragon stone distribution at a museum in Armenia, I noticed an interesting correlation. A massive area of eastern Turkey is underlain by what geologists call the Erzurum-Kars Plateau [9]. Recalling the geological observations of Dr. Andrew Snelling, he noted that the lavas of the Erzurum-Kars Plateau were deposited on top of water-laid sedimentary layers, confirming that this entire plateau was formed post-flood [6]. When I superimposed the geological boundaries of this plateau onto the map of the dragon stones,my initial theory was confirmed. There are practically zero dragon stones found anywhere within this vast volcanic plateau. Considering these stones are dated to roughly 3,000 to 4,000 BC, their absence perfectly makes sense. Ancient people would not, and could not, erect monuments on a still-volatile landscape.
GEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE
To say it quite simply, Mount Ararat is a recent, still active volcano. The twin peaks of the volcano are certainly iconic, yet those conical shapes are a recent volcanic formation. According to the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program, [4] Mount Ararat has confirmed eruptions in 2450 BC, 550 BC, 1450 AD, 1783 AD, and as recently as 1840 AD. Each was an effusive eruption, where viscous lava spills and flows steadily out of a fissure, gradually building up the mountain’s height, as opposed to an explosive eruption that blows a mountain apart. Several other unconfirmed eruptions have likely occurred in the last several thousand years as well.
The most recent eruption occurred on July 2, 1840, causing massive damage, destroying surrounding villages, and taking the lives of up to 10,000 people. According to a 2019 geomorphological investigation [5], an earthquake initially triggered the abrupt eruption, which rapidly melted glacial ice and snow to form the massive Ahora Gorge on the mountain's northeastern flanks. This is significant because the Ahora Gorge has been the main focus for countless Noah’s Ark expeditions over the last century. Yet the recorded geology and eyewitness accounts are quite clear: the Ahora Gorge formed in 1840, meaning it cannot hold the remains of the Ark. While photography was invented just the year before the eruption (meaning no photographs exist of Ararat before the deadly event) a search of visual records from early traveler accounts shows that the mountain did not have the Ahora Gorge.
Among some Young Earth Creationist (YEC) geologists, Mount Ararat is classified as a post-flood volcano, meaning the mountain formed entirely after the flood. Geologist Dr. Andrew Snelling, former Director of Research for Answers in Genesis, makes a compelling case for this in his 2017 article, “Is Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat?” [6] Snelling notes that thousands of feet of flood sediments are found under the mountain. In fact, he identifies the entire Erzurum-Kars Plateau as post-flood lava flows upon which the Ark could not have landed. Looking at the map, this encompasses a large territory of the mountains of Armenia, but notably, the modern land of Armenia is not under these recent lava flows. He finishes his geological case with this statement:
"However, the volcano now called Mount Ararat did not grow until well after the ocean (Flood) waters had retreated. Furthermore, the lavas and ash layers of Mount Ararat date to the time of the post-Flood Ice Age. This is consistent with Mount Ararat being built after the Flood on top of a dry plateau. Mount Ararat is thus a post-Flood volcano, which continued to erupt, most recently less than 200 years ago." [6]
Snelling goes on to dismantle other current claims of discovery, from the Ahora Gorge to Durupinar and to Mount Judi, ultimately concluding that "it must have landed on another high mountain in the region at that time." [6]
An excerpt from an 1840 newspaper detailing the massive earthquake-induced eruption of Ararat.
An 1829 sketch of Mount Ararat during Parrot's expedition to Ararat. Notice the lack of the Ahora Gorge. (Source: www.armgeo.am)
A CALL TO LOOK ELSEWHERE
The geological record, the archaeological evidence, and historical eyewitness accounts of its eruptions all point to the same conclusion: Mount Ararat is simply not a viable candidate for the landing site of the Ark.
It is time to finally move past decades of endless searching and speculation and look beyond this single peak. Just north of Ararat, and importantly located completely outside of the Erzurum-Kars Plateau, lies another volcano with a base nearly five times that of Ararat, which experienced its ancient eruptions well before recorded history. It fits the two criteria found in Genesis - the Mountains of Ararat and the tallest in the surrounding region - yet not a single person in recent memory has ever given it any thought. That is, until that one summer morning, I decided to take a look. All the pieces fell together for Aragats being the lost mountain of the Ark. And it goes so much deeper than this: the evidence points to it being the lost mountain of creation.
It has been hiding in plain site for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
A map of the Armenian highlands, with the two largest, Ararat and Aragats, highlighted.
For those unfamiliar with the region, the immediate question is: what and where exactly is Mount Aragats? Sitting within the modern borders of Armenia, which represent only a fraction of its historical size, Aragats is the highest peak in the country at 4,090 meters (13,420 feet). While being the highest point in a flatter country might not impress, Armenia stands as the sixth most mountainous nation on Earth, with mountains covering 86 percent of its landmass [10]. Geologically, Aragats is an ancient massif. Long before the modern cone of Ararat was ever formed, Aragats towered over the landscape.
The structure of Aragats is also very unique. It features four isolated peaks arranged roughly in the four cardinal directions of north, south, east, and west. These are not individual mountains but rather the shattered, surviving rim of a massive central volcanic crater. This caldera spans roughly three kilometers in diameter and drops 400 meters deep. Such immense scale indicates that a cataclysmic eruption completely blew off the mountain's top. According to mainstream research, the primary event forming the caldera and four peaks occurred 900,000 years ago, with the most recent major activity around 500,000 years ago, rendering Aragats an extinct volcano today [11]. Regardless of the dating model applied, the geological sequence is clear: Aragats was a massive, fully established mountain long before the waters of the flood ever rose.
Geologists and regional topographers have attempted to extrapolate the original slope angles to reconstruct the mountain’s paleoelevation, which is its ancient height before the caldera collapsed. In Armenian literature, it is widely cited that the pre-eruption, fully conical height of Mount Aragats approached 8,000 meters, or roughly 26,200 feet [12]. For context, this would make it nearly as tall as Mount Everest, completely dwarfing Mount Ararat’s current height. While Western geologists have primarily focused their research on dating the volcanic activity rather than estimating its former height, the physical footprint of the mountain tells a compelling story of its own.
The four peaks of Aragats
A geologic map of Aragats volcano, by Dmitri Arakelyan, 'Looking for the Tombs of Dragons'
SECTION 1.3
THE GEOLOGICAL
CASE FOR ARAGATS
Sattellite and relief maps showing the location of Mount Aragats in comparision to Mount Ararat, a distrance of 90 km (55 miles). Notice how much larger the base of Aragats is to that of Ararat.
The estimated re-constructed height of Aragats verses that of Mount Ararat
As a geologist, I decided to calculate the ancient height of Mount Aragats myself by comparing its base to that of Mount Ararat. The Aragats massif covers a staggering 5,000 square kilometers [13], encompassing nearly 20 percent of Armenia’s total modern landmass. By comparison, Mount Ararat’s base, which includes both its greater and lesser peaks, measures approximately 1,200 square kilometers [14]. Aragats is more than four times the size of Ararat at its foundation. By conservatively applying Ararat’s base-to-height ratio to the Aragats massif, I estimated its original height would have reached at least 7,000 meters. This would place the ancient Aragats as the tallest mountain in the world outside of the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges.
Because of this sprawling, massive foundation, the surviving outer flanks of Aragats present a uniquely gentle gradient, allowing visitors today to drive or easily walk near the summit. Unlike the treacherous, glaciated inclines of modern Ararat, this gradual slope would have been absolutely essential for Noah, his family, and a massive congregation of animals safely descending from the Ark.
The towering ancient height and accessible terrain of Aragats flawlessly fit the physical descriptions required by Genesis. Yet geology and biblical exegesis are only part of the equation. When we examine what ancient travelers, historians, and early scholars documented about the actual landing location of the Ark, Aragats, not Ararat, possesses a truly compelling historical claim.
When examining the historical record, it becomes immediately apparent that ancient texts and historians pointed to a great mountain in Armenia, but they did not uniformly identify the peak known today as Mount Ararat. In fact, it is crucial to understand that the towering volcano on the Turkish border did not gain the specific name "Mount Ararat" until the late Middle Ages. Western Christian travelers and mapmakers began applying the name of the ancient province to its tallest peak [15]. To the local Armenians who have lived in its shadow for millennia, the mountain was, and still is, known as Masis (Mother Mountain) [16].
The most authoritative and frequently referenced early sources regarding the Ark belong to Berossus, Nicolaus of Damascus, and Flavius Josephus. Berossus was a renowned astronomer and writer from Hellenistic Babylon in the third century BC. Although his original texts are lost, his specific quote on the Ark was preserved by Josephus, one of the most heavily cited historians of the first century AD. Quoting Berossus, Josephus wrote:
“It is said there is still some part of this ship in Armenia, at the mountain of the Cordyæans; and that some people carry off pieces of the bitumen: which they take away, and use chiefly as amulets, for the averting of mischiefs.” [17]
A few details stand out in this account. First, Berossus describes a singular, notable peak ("the mountain"). Second, he notes that locals could actually hike to the site and retrieve pieces of bitumen, the pitch used to waterproof the Ark. This strongly implies a geographically accessible landing site. The treacherous, heavily glaciated upper gorges of Mount Ararat have historically been inaccessible to all except extreme mountaineers. We will touch on this in Part 5, but ancient bitumen artifacts have been discovered directly at the base of Mount Aragats. Third, early historians frequently identified the Ark's resting place as the mountains of the "Cordyæans." This ancient tradition was codified in the 2nd-century Targum Onkelos and later recorded by the 5th-century historian Faustus of Byzantium, [18] appearing in historical texts under variants like Gordyaean, Gordien, and Qardu. I came across a 1789 map of Eden at the History Museum of Yerevan by the French theologian Antoine Augustin Calmet. [19] Calmet mapped Paradise directly within Armenia, sandwiched between two towering peaks: Mount Ararat to the south, and "Gordien Mountains" to the north. Geographically, Calmet placed this northern "Gordian" mountain in the exact footprint of Mount Aragats.
Nicolaus of Damascus, a famous Greek historian and philosopher of the first century BC, also documented the landing place. His account was similarly preserved by Josephus:
“There is a great mountain in Armenia, over Minyas, called Baris: upon which it is reported that many who fled at the time of the deluge were saved: and that one who was carried in an Ark, came on shore upon the top of it; and that the remains of the timber were a great while preserved: this might be the man about whom Moses, the Legislator of the Jews, wrote.” [17]
A couple details also stand out in this account. He locates the mountain "over Minyas," which is commonly translated as "north of Minyas." Minyas, also called Manna, is a historical region centered around Lake Urmia in modern-day northern Iran. [20] If one looks directly north from Lake Urmia, the line passes right through the Ararat valley. While Mount Ararat lies along this trajectory, Mount Aragats sits even more squarely to the direct north. Furthermore, he explicitly names the peak "Mount Baris," a term generally understood by scholars to mean "Great Height." The local name of Ararat - Masis - was used during this time, though Nicolaus called the mountain a different name.
The Book of Jubilees provides another clue. While not included in the standard bible (though it is still revered by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church), Jubilees serves as a historical window into ancient Jewish thought. Fifteen scrolls of Jubilees were discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls, making it one of the most widely read texts of its time. Jubilees 5:28 says "And the ark went and rested on the top of Lûbâr, one of the mountains of Ararat." [21]. For the past two thousand years, the specific identity of Mount Lubar remained a mystery. Scholar Richard C. Steiner dropped a clue when he analyzed the etymology of the text and concluded: “It would seem, therefore, that the name of Mount Lubar is an Aramaic word of Akkadian origin meaning 'ancient'.” [22] Now let's think about this. To those living in the region, modern Mount Ararat is far from ancient. In fact, Ararat is a highly active stratovolcano that experienced violent eruptions in the centuries prior to the writing of Jubilees. [23]
Mount Aragats, on the other hand, perfectly matches the ancient Jewish memory of Mount Lubar. It is the true ancient mountain of the Ararat region.'
By the eighth century, the geographic focus shifted entirely to the south toward Mount Judi, driven exclusively by the writings of the Quran. However, as established by the biblical text and geographic reality, Mount Judi lies entirely outside the ancient borders of the "Mountains of Ararat" and is nowhere near the tallest peak in the region. Because it fails both foundational criteria, Mount Judi can be safely dismissed from the investigation.
What is peculiar about these historical accounts is that none of these famous historians ever actually traveled through the Armenian Highlands to see the geography with their own eyes. They drew upon much older, secondhand sources, and over generations, the place names and geographic bearings became distorted. Throughout the following five centuries, most writers simply piggybacked on these same earlier Greek and Babylonian accounts without verifying the topography firsthand, until Islam came around and a new mountain was named. But they kept two recurring facts consistent: the general location and that it landed on a great mountain.
A 1789 map by Antoine Augustin Calmet depicting the "Gordien Mountains" as the exact same location as Aragats.
Both Mount Ararat and Mount Aragats lie "North of Minna." In fact, Aragats fits the decription even better as it is more directly north.
SECTION 1.4
THE HISTORICAL RECORD
Maurice's Pillar, a 7th cwentury monument traditonally believed to mark the location of the Byzantine Emperor's tomb.
Map of Heraclius' campaigns. Notice in two, possibly all three, he passed through Armenia. In his final campaign, he circumnavigated Aragats, as shown.
HERACLIUS - THE FIRST ASCENT
The very first historical account someone trying to reach Noah’s Ark belongs to the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius in the early seventh century. [24] Different sources have interpreted his journey as a climb up either Mount Judi or Mount Ararat. The oldest surviving record of this event, likely borrowing from even older texts, was preserved by the tenth-century historian Agapius of Hierapolis in his Kitab al-’Unwan. He wrote: "Heraclius... climbed the mountain which is called Al-Judi, examined the location of the ark, surveyed the world to the four cardinal points, and then headed for Amida where he remained throughout the winter." [25]
At first glance, it seems the case is closed: the Emperor climbed Mount Judi. But as I dug deeper into the historical context, I uncovered something extraordinary that points in a completely different direction.
Sebeos, a seventh-century Armenian bishop and a contemporary of Heraclius, authored one of the most important historical accounts of the era. In his History of Armenia, [26] Sebeos explicitly details Heraclius's campaigns, recording that the Emperor "traveled via the north" to enter the province of Ayrarat. Sebeos notes that Heraclius captured the city of Dvin, which sits directly in the Ararat Valley, and wintered his troops in the surrounding Armenian Highlands. After his initial victories, Sebeos states that the Emperor "returned to the country of Armenia." The historical record proves that Heraclius literally marched right past Mount Aragats.
But the connection runs even deeper. Heraclius was of Armenian descent, born into a prominent family from Cappadocia. To fully appreciate his motivations, one must look at his predecessor, Emperor Maurice, who reigned from 582 to 602. Heraclius’s father, Heraclius the Elder, served as a top general and fiercely loyal friend to Maurice. In 602, a usurper named Phocas orchestrated a coup, murdering Maurice and his five children. Swearing retribution, Heraclius and his father launched a massive revolt in 608 that culminated in the capture and beheading of Phocas, placing Heraclius on the throne. [27] Emperor Maurice was also Armenian. According to historians like the tenth-century writer Stepanos Asoghik, Maurice originated from the village of Oshakan. [28] Oshakan lies on the southern slopes of Mount Aragats, just fifteen minutes from where we live today! The village even features a monumental seventh-century pillar traditionally believed to mark the tomb of Maurice.
When you look at the history logically, a hidden truth emerges. Heraclius, the first man recorded to reach the Ark, was an Armenian emperor fighting to avenge his predecessor, and friend, from Oshakan. He waged his campaign directly in the Ararat Valley, with a strong possibility of him visiting Maurice's ancestral home and placing his body here to honor him. He is on Mount Aragats, or at the very least walked past it as historians recorded. Other than being in the general vicinity on his way home from his last campaign, there is no mention of him passing Mount Judi (in Persian territory). The geography strongly suggests Heraclius climbed Mount Aragats, and later Muslim historians relocated the story to fit their own narratives.
But those later writers also left behind one geographic clue. The original text states that when Heraclius reached the Ark, he "surveyed the world to the four cardinal points." [25] What mountain is famously defined by a shattered crater surrounded by exactly four peaks facing north, south, east, and west? Mount Aragats.
The house of Marco Polo in Venice. He is arguably the greatest explorer in the world, and he recorded the "mountain of Noah's Ark" in such detail.
MARCO POLO (13TH CENTURY)
While ancient historians often relied on distant traditions, the most compelling historical evidence comes from an eyewitness who physically traversed the region. This brings us to one of the most famous medieval accounts of the Near East: the 13th-century travelogue of Marco Polo. As he traveled the Silk Road directly through Armenia, tracing a route past the ancient capital of Ani and sweeping south around the Aragats massif toward Ashtarak and Lake Sevan, he recorded a precise, firsthand description of what he understood to be the Mountain of Noah:
“Let me also tell you that in the middle of Greater Armenia there is a large mountain, very high and shaped like a cup, upon which Noah’s Ark is said to have rested; hence it is called the Mountain of Noah’s Ark. It is so broad and long that it takes more than two days to go round it, and all year round the snow lies so deep on the summit that no one can climb it; the old snow never entirely melts, and new snow is constantly falling on top, so it grows taller all the time.
But the lower slopes are watered by the melting snow and are so richly verdant that all the flocks from far around are brought here to graze in the summer and never run out of pasture.” [29]
Finally someone describes the mountain! And in fact, Marco Polo’s eyewitness description captures Aragats flawlessly, as we will lay out. He details an exceptionally broad, cup-shaped mountain ringed by high snowfields, yet defined by vast, fertile pastures where herds thrive all summer. This cup shape is one of the most iconic structural features of Aragats, and it cannot accurately be applied to any other mountain in Armenia. As discussed earlier, its four peaks encircle a central caldera that drops 400 meters deep, forming a definitive geological bowl. This concept is engraven on the very name of Aragats, which means "Throne of Ara." [30] The "throne" or "cup" shape is certainly one of the iconic descriptors of the mountain.
Furthermore, the logistical scale Polo recorded aligns with the reality of the terrain. One end of Aragats to the other end, west to east as he would be traveling on the ancient trade route that ran right past it, entails about 40 kilometers of distance. Navigating this distance would certainly take a traveler several days on foot, or at least two full days on horseback or camel. [31]
Thirdly, Aragats is covered in verdant pastures that stretch for miles. Every late spring, thousands upon thousands of sheep and their shepherds ascend these gentle slopes to graze, returning to the lowlands in late summer. It remains one of the few places in the world where seasonal nomadic pastoralism, often carried out by the local Yazidi people, is still practiced exactly as it has been for centuries. [32] None of these physical realities match the steep, arid, boulder-strewn slopes of Mount Ararat, nor do they fit any other peak along the northern Silk Road corridor. Aragats stands alone in this description
A copy of the Travelogue of Marco Polo, kept in a museum in Venice.
A map of the route of the historic Silk Road through Armenia, which Marco Polo traversed. Notice the route passes just south of Aragats, but not near Ararat.
The slopes of Aragats are with thousands of sheep along with their semi-nomadic owners who live on the mountain in the summer. This does not occur on Ararat.
The medieval capitol of Ani lies close to Aragats, just to the west. It does not lie near Ararat.
VINCENT OF BEAUVEIS (13TH CENTURY)
Polo was not the only medieval chronicler to point away from Ararat. In the 13th century, the Dominican monk Vincent of Beauvais recorded an equally compelling tradition in his encyclopedic Speculum Historiale. [33] Beauvais writes of a towering peak near the ancient Armenian capital of Ani called "Mount Arach." He recounts the famous legend of a devoted monk who repeatedly attempted to summit the mountain to find the Ark, only to wake up exhausted at its base each morning. Eventually, an angel appeared, gifted the monk a fragment of the Ark’s wood, and instructed him to build a monastery at the mountain's foot.
For centuries, Western historians assumed "Arach" was simply a misspelling of Ararat. [34] However, in 1920, the Bollandist scholar Paul Peeters published a great commentary decoding the corrupted Latin geography of the manuscript. Peeters demonstrated that the text’s surrounding landmarks - a tributary confused with the Hrazdan river, the nearby "sea" of Sevan, and a settlement called Laudumie (a Latin translation of the Armenian Kʿarahankʿ, meaning "quarries") - perfectly trace the topography of Aragats, which was known as Arakads at time, not disimilar to "Arach". Most conclusively, Peeters noted that the "Arakads" massif was the actual home of the Hreshtakabnak ("House of the Angel") hermitage. Built directly into the cliffs of the Kasakh Gorge, this localized monastery claimed to hold the relics of Saint James of Nisibis and the wood of the ark, defending its own regional narrative against the ecclesiastical establishment.
Together, these two distinct medieval records reveal a fascinating historical reality. Marco Polo’s physical description of the cup-shaped, pasture-rich caldera, combined with Vincent of Beauvais’s transcription of localized monastic folklore, demonstrates that in the 13th century, the living geographic and cultural memory of the Ark was firmly rooted in Mount Aragats, rather than the steep, arid slopes of Ararat.
A CONCLUSION TO PART 1
From the biblical criteria to the geological record, Mount Aragats should have a serious case as the resting place of Noah’s Ark. When you pair that with the historical accounts, the case grows even greater. Still, we have barely scratched the surface. High on its slopes sits a site known locally as "The Place of Pilgrimage," carrying thousands of years of documented history and pointing to Aragats as the very cradle of civilization. But it is a journey to reach there.
Aragats held importance at the dawn of time, a memory preserved well into the medieval era, and I believe it deserves that recognition again today. Before we move on to Part 2, consider Gregory the Illuminator. As the patron saint of Armenia, he was instrumental in 301 AD in leading the country to become the first officially Christian nation in the world. Gregory climbed Aragats again and again to pray and draw closer to God. Armenian tradition tells of a heavenly light hanging between the four peaks that shone down on him during his climbs. The famous Light of Gregory, which people say still appears on rare nights. Even setting the legend aside, Gregory's devotion to this mountain is unmistakable as he even chose to spend his final years as a hermit on its slopes.
Clearly, this mountain has always carried deep spiritual importance. To follow that trail fully, we need to go back even further, to the very dawn of humanity...
GO TO PART 2
A detailed analysis of Eden from the Bible, where it most likely lies today, and how Aragats fits into the story.
2
REFERENCES
[1] Piotrovsky, Boris B. The Ancient Civilization of Urartu. Cowles Book Co., 1969.
[2] Kramer, Samuel Noah. Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta: A Sumerian Epic Tale of Iraq and Iran. University of Pennsylvania Museum, 1952.
[3] Kavoukjian, Martiros. Armenia, Subartu, and Sumer: The Indo-European Homeland and Ancient Mesopotamia. Montreal, 1987, p. 69.
[4] Smithsonian Institution. (n.d.). Ararat (Volcano Number: 213040). Global Volcanism Program. https://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=213040
[5] Azzoni, R. S., Fugazza, D., Garzonio, C. A., Nicoll, K., Diolaiuti, G. A., Pelfini, M., & Zerboni, A. (2019). Geomorphological effects of the 1840 Ahora Gorge catastrophe on Mount Ararat (Eastern Turkey). Geomorphology, 332, 10–21.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2019.01.017
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