Ararat is celebrated as the resting-place of Noah's ark after the
Deluge, and as the spot whence the descendants of Noah peopled the
earth. It rises on the Persian frontier, on a large plain, detached,
as it were, from the other mountains of Armenia, which make a long
chain. It consists, properly speaking, of two hills--the highest of
which, where the ark is said to have rested,[18] is, according to
Parrot, 2,700 toises, or 17,718 feet above the level of the ocean.[19]
The summit is covered with perpetual snow; the lower parts are
composed of a deep, moving sand; and one side presents a vast chasm
tinged with smoke, from which flames have been known to issue.
[18] The precise spot is controverted, as will be seen in an
extract from the ingenious work on Scriptural
Antiquities, quoted in vol. xix. of _the Mirror_, p. 382;
where are notices of the mountain by Morier and Sir
Robert Ker Porter. The latter describes Ararat as
divided, by a chasm of about seven miles wide, into two
distinct peaks, and is of opinion that the ark finally
rested in this chasm.
[19] Edin. New Phil. Journ. By Professor Jameson. No. 23, p.
156.--Note to a paper by Humboldt, on the Mountain Chains
and Volcanoes of Central Asia. Ararat is referred to in
Genesis, viii. 4. Its distance and bearing from
Jerusalem, 650, N.E.b.N.; Lat. North, 39.40. Long. East,
43.50. Country, Erivan; Province, Mahou.--_From the
General Index to the Biblical Family Cabinet Atlas._
[Illustration: _Mount Ararat, from a drawing, by Sir Robert Ker Porter._]
Perhaps the most recent visit to this wonder of the East will be found
described in Mr. J.H. Stocqueler's Journal of _Fifteen Months'
Pilgrimage through untrodden Tracts of Khuzistan and Persia_, in 1831
and 1832:--
"We mounted our horses," says the enthusiastic traveller, "soon after
sunrise, and had proceeded for about four hours over numerous
acclivities, and through a territory of undulations resembling the
waves of the sea deprived of motion, when the southern peak of Ararat
(for there are two), snow-clad and 'cloud-clapt' suddenly burst upon
my view! At first I scarcely dared venture to believe we were so near
this celebrated mount, though its situation and the distance we had
journeyed from Tabreez left no doubt of the fact. I even questioned
the guide, and on his answering that it was the summit of Agri-Dagh
(the name by which Ararat is called by the Turks), I involuntarily
clasped my hands in ecstacy! Who can contemplate this superb elevation
without a mixture of awe and admiration, or fail to recur to the page
of sacred writ illustrative of Almighty wrath and the just man's
recompense? Who can gaze upon the majesty of this mount, towering
above the 'high places' and the hills, and turn without repining to
the plains beneath, where puny man has pitched his tent and wars upon
his fellow, mocking the sublimity of Nature with his paltry tyranny? I
felt as if I lived in other times, and my eye eagerly but vainly
sought for some traces of that 'ark' which furnished a refuge and a
shelter to the creatures of God's mercy when the 'waters prevailed,
and were increased greatly on the earth,' till 'all in whose nostrils
was the breath of life, and all that was in the dry land, died!'
"Though distant forty miles at least from the base of Ararat, the
magnitude of the mountain, of about the centre of which our elevated
position now placed us abreast, caused it to appear contiguous to our
route, and produced that indefinable thrill and sense of humility
which the immediate presence of any vast and overpowering object is so
eminently calculated to generate. I continued to gaze until the
decline of day warned us to seek a shelter, and Phoebus, casting a
parting glance at the crystal summit of the noble glacier, for a
moment diffused over all a soft rosy tint,[20] then sunk into the west
and left the world in darkness."
[20] This peculiar effect of the setting sun on snow-covered
mountains has been observed by other travellers in other
regions. In Switzerland the phenomenon is by no means
rare.
"And sun-set into rose hues sees them wrought."
_Byron._
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