THE FORGOTTEN LAND

One spring morning in Byurakan, my wife and I were counting types of fruit trees in our garden. When the count passed thirty varieties, I joked to her:

 

"I think we're standing in the Garden of Eden."

It was just an offhand remark, but it sparked something.

​

When God called my family to move to Armenia in 2024, we didn’t a know single person here or even why we came. We made the journey on our own, trading my geology career in California for an unknown future. Someone later called us trailblazers, but it felt as far from the truth. We were simply living day to day in a quiet village here, trying to be faithful and content in the simple tasks while serving at our church on Sundays. Over the previous decade, our travels have taken us across tens of thousands of miles along the Silk Roads and ancient Roman highways, mapping the landscapes and the travels of Paul. I didn't realize it then, but perhaps those years were quietly laying the groundwork for what lay ahead.

​

​As a licensed professional geologist trained at UCLA, I had looked at popular Ark landing sites like Mount Ararat and Durupinar, but none made physical or biblical sense. The Bible requires a high mountain in the ancient territory of Ararat, along with a realistic slope where Noah's family and the animals could safely climb down. When you pair those clues with what we would expect to see on the ground - physical traces and a lasting local memory of pilgrimage - none of the popular candidates fit the whole picture. However, as I began exploring Mount Aragats, the pieces finally started locking together. I spent months driving bumpy mountain roads and layering geological data over historical records. The convergence across geology, archaeology, theology, and ancient mythology was staggering. It took months of prayer and hesitation before I finally decided to share any of it.

​​

Today, three main candidates dominate the search for the Ark:

​

1. Mount Ararat: The traditional giant in the biblical "mountains of Ararat," yet lacking verified physical remains or early archaeological evidence of pilgrimage.

​

2. Durupinar: A formation matching the biblical dimensions of the vessel, but sitting in a lower valley with no ancient history of veneration.

​

3. Mount Judi: The Quranic candidate, preserving over a millennium of documented pilgrimage, but lying outside the biblical heartland and lacking physical remains.

​

And now, there is a fourth candidate. One that unites the strongest arguments of all three into a single mountain.

 

It stands squarely in the biblical mountains of Ararat as the highest peak in modern Armenia, and was once geologically the tallest mountain in the region before its massive eruption. High on its slopes, upon an accessible plateau, sits a level imprint matching the exact dimensions of the Ark, bordered by numerous petrified wood-like stones. And this site hold more than 7,000 years of documented history that scientists call "one of the highest archaeological sites in the world" in a which a "water cult" started here and spread around the world, all centered on a hill known to this day as Kizil Ziyaret: The Place of Pilgrimage.

​

​

This is Mount Aragats. A massive mountain just north of Ararat, with a footprint nearly five times larger.

​​

​​

Before we begin, two thoughts must be laid on the table:

​

First, none of this is truly "new." As Solomon wrote: "Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new” It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time." (Ecclesiastes 1:10) These mountains and the memories etched into them were known to the earliest generations who walked down from these heights. I view it more as a "re-discovery."

​

Second is a question I still wrestle with: why me?

 

It is, in all honesty, my greatest source of doubt. It might easily seem that I am simply trying to elevate Armenia, or to make a name for myself. But the truth is, I was never looking for the Ark and I never came here aiming to make a grand biblical discovery. 

 

Even if every premise in these pages is scrutinized and debated, my deepest hope is that it points to something far greater: the reality of a God who has always sought a family. It is a story that begins on a mountain in Genesis, restarts through the waters of the Flood, and finds its ultimate answer in the cross of Christ. Regardless of where you land on the Ark, I pray that this truth lands with you.

​