Ararat

Ararat, a mountain in Western Asia (lat. 39° 42' N., long. 44° 35' E.), which tradition identifies as the spot where the Ark stopped (Gen. viii. 4). Situated on the confines of Russian Armenia, Turkey, and Persia, it is known to the Armenians as Masis Leusar or Mountain of the Ark; to the Persians as Kuh-i-Nuh, or Noah's Mountain; and to the Turks as Akh-dagh or Steep Mountain. It is of volcanic origin and rises in two cones. Akh-Dagh (Greater Ararat), the higher of the two, has an elevation of 17,112 feet, surpassing all other peaks of Western Asia. The other, Allah Dahr (Lesser Ararat), is 13,085 feet high. In 1840 a terrible earthquake altered the shape of the mountain, destroying also the village of Argusi at its foot and the monastery of St. James on its flank. It was a local superstition that no living creature could scale the snow-clad summit, but Dr. Parrot performed the feat in 1829, and since then several mountaineers have made the ascent, amongst them Professor Bryce, who described his journey in a book published in 1877.