Ararat is paradoxical. The mountain is considered a symbol of Armenia, although it is located in Turkey. The search for the Ark is still ongoing on the volcanic massif, but they have not yet brought success. We call this mountain Ararat, the Armenians call it Masis.
Name
Not everyone calls Mount Ararat Ararat. The traditional Armenian name for this mountain is Masis. There are several interpretations of the origin of this name. According to the Armenian folk etymology, which is quoted by Movses Khorenatsi in the History of Armenia, the name Azas Masis goes back to the name of the legendary Armenian king Amasia. James Russell, head of the Armenian Studies Department at Harvard University, wrote that the name of this king comes from the name of the Turkish city of Amasya. In Armenian mythology, there is also a story about a quarrel between Mount Masis and sister Aragats.
Historian-orientalist Anatoly Novoseltsev believed that the word "Masis" is of Iranian origin and means "big, great" in the meaning of "highest mountain", in Middle Persian masist means "the greatest".
In Turkey, Ararat is also called Agrydag or Agra-Dag, which can be translated as "crooked mountain" or "mountain of pain". The Persian name of Ararat is Kuhi-Nuh, which translates as "Mount Noah". The Arabic name for Ararat is Jabal-al-Haret ("plowman's mountain"), the Kurdish name is Agri ("fiery mountain").
English historian James Bryce wrote in his travel notes in 1876 that among the local population (Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Turks and Persians) the name “Ararat” is practically not used. It began to spread thanks to European influence, along with the expansion of the role of the Russian language.
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Noah's ark
Ararat is traditionally associated with the biblical legend of the Flood, which is not surprising. The Bible says:
“And the ark stopped in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat” (Gen. 8: 4).
In the Biblical Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron, in the article "Ararat", however, it is emphasized that there is no direct indication that Noah's ark stuck exactly to the modern Mount Ararat. Ararat is the name of a place in the north of Assyria, presumably it is about Urartu, mentioned in cuneiform texts, in an ancient country near Lake Van.
Modern researchers are also inclined to believe that the Bible means Urartu. The Soviet orientalist Ilya Shifmann wrote that the vocalization of "Ararat" was first attested in the Septuagint, a translation of the Old Testament into Greek from the 3rd-2nd century BC. The Qumran scrolls contain the spelling "wrrt", implying the vocalization "Urarat". Shifman is the compiler of the scientific translation of the Pentateuch, in which the above quotation from the Book of Genesis reads as follows: "And the ark stopped in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, near Mount Urartu."
Noah's Ark was searched for on Ararat several times. One of the fathers of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Hakob Mtsbnetsi, tried to climb Mount Ararat back in the 4th century, but every time he fell asleep on the way and woke up at the foot of the mountain. According to legend, after another attempt, an angel appeared to Hakob and told him to stop searching for the ark, in return for which he promised to bring a fragment of the relic. A particle of Noah's Ark is still in the Echmiadzin Cathedral.
Climbing
According to the traditional beliefs of local peoples, for a long time the ascent of Mount Ararat (5165 meters) was considered a godless deed. In medieval Armenia, the search for the Ark on the mountain and its very conquest was perceived as sacrilege.
The first ascent to Ararat was made a year after the conclusion of the Turkmanchay Peace Treaty (September 27, 1829), when Ararat passed from Persia to the Russian Empire. The research expedition was led by Professor of the University of Dorpat Johann Friedrich Parrot.
Today climbing Mount Ararat is available to anyone. From the village of Dokubeyazit, the group is taken to the level of 2300 meters, then you need to climb to the base camp, from there to the upper camp at an altitude of 4400 meters. A glacier begins behind it.
Affiliation
The image of Mount Ararat is on the coat of arms of Armenia, the mountain is the most famous Armenian symbol, but today both small and large Ararat are located in Turkey. Big Ararat went to Turkey under the terms of the Treaty of Moscow and the Treaty of Kars in 1921, in 1932, under the terms of the Turkish-Persian agreement, part of the eastern slope of Small Ararat also ended up in Turkey.
The Turkish government protested that the coat of arms of Armenia depicts Ararat, which is not part of Armenia. According to legend, in response to this, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Georgy Chicherin replied to the Turks that their flag depicts a crescent, although the Moon is not part of Turkey.
Stratovolcano
Ararat is a stratovolcano. It is considered extinct, although the last manifestation of its activity was relatively recent - in 1840, when the eruption was accompanied by an earthquake, avalanches and mudflows. As a result of the cataclysm, the village of Arguri and the monastery of St. Jacob, located on the slopes of the mountain, were destroyed. Since that time, there are no permanent settlements on Ararat.