2350 B.C.

THE GREAT FLOOD

NOAH AND MOUNT ARARAT

Bred from Adam and Eve, mankind gradually turned away from God and became evil. God
decided to punish all mankind with a flood, except for Noah, a righteous and good man and
faithful to God. Before the flood, He commanded Noah to build an ark, then take his family, a
couple of every land animal and bird, and enter the ark. Then the flood started and it rained for
40 days and 40 nights. Everything went under the water and perished.

After a long voyage, Noah’s Ark stopped on Mount Ararat. The news of the receding of the
waters was heralded by the dove that Noah had released, which returned with an olive branch
in its beak. After seven days, Noah released the dove again, and this time the dove did not
return, indicating that the earth had dried up. After leaving the ark, Noah prepared an altar and
sacrificed. God made a covenant with him and his sons, the sign of which was the rainbow.

Noah settled with his three sons Shem, Ham, Japheth and their families in the settlements
around Mount Ararat. According to the same legend, after coming down from Mount Ararat,
when Noah saw the land. The first place Noah landed was called Nakhichevan, and his first
plant was a grapevine. He was engaged in farming.

Mount Judi, Qardū in Syriac, Gordyene by Greek and Roman, Kordukh in Armenian, is the
location of Noah's "Place of Descent," the landing site of the ark, where it came to rest after the
Great Flood. located near the modern border with Syria and Iraq, at the headwaters of the
Tigris River.

a peak near or northeast of the town of Jazirat ibn 'Umar - modern Cizre in south-east Turkey,
at the headwaters of the Tigris River, near the modern border with Syria, and that of Iraq.

there being at least two settlements near the mountain, one being the ancient ruins of
Thamanin - located to the south of the mountain and the other being the city of Nesbin - near
the border with Syria.

Thamanin meaning "Eighty" in Arabic was founded by Noah and the survivors of the flood, who
were number around 80, and a tel the ruin of Thamanin is located east of Cizre - one of the
places to have the tomb of Noah.

Then the word went forth "O earth! swallow up thy water, and O sky! Withhold thy rain!" is said
to have ended the water abating, and the Ark rested on Al-Judi, and the word went forth:
"Away with those who do wrong! — Quran, 11:44

the traveller Ibn Battuta passed by the mountain in the 14th century "all the Armenians are
firmly persuaded that Noah's Ark remains to this very day on the top of Ararat, and that, in
order to preserve it, no human being is allowed to approach it. the widespread conviction that
the ancient Ark of Noah is embedded in ice high atop Mount Ararat, waiting to be found

the Ark began its voyage at Kufa in central Iraq, and sailed to Mecca, where it circled the
Kaaba, before finally travelling to Judi. placed the mountain "above Jazirat ibn Umar, to the
east of the Tigris," a mosque built by Noah that could be seen in his day,

LEGENDS OF MOUNT ARARAT

 Mount Ararats omnipresent elusive natural landmark dominates both the landscape and
imagination; its snow-capped peaks full of symbolism, ancient myth, and one of the world's
most enduring mysteries just as the Giza pyramids.

Mount Ararat is two separate mountains, both dormant volcanoes, their peaks capped with
snow throughout the year. Great Ararat is 17,000 feet high, dwarfing any other mountain in the
region.

Mount Ararat’s magical countenance: "It seems to grow not out of the earth," "but out of the
sky as if it had condensed from its white clouds and deep blue. this snowy mountain, bluish-
white sunlit mountain.

Mount Ararat has been at the center of creation stories, myths, and powerful legends. In the
pagan religion of pre-Christian Armenia, Ancient scholars in Mesopotamia believed that the
snow-peaked mountains were the source of the life-giving Tigris and Euphrates River.

Mount Ararat, is with the Biblical story of the Flood, and the great ark built by Noah to save his
family, "…and of every living thing of all flesh." (Genesis 6:17). Almost every ancient culture
from the Babylonians to the Sumerians to the Greeks had a vivid flood narrative.

THE ARK LEGEND

In the Book of Genesis, God instructions to build the ark, the materials should be gopher wood
and pitch, and the dimensions, “three hundred cubits the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the
height of it 30 cubits." (Gen 6:16). a three-storied vessel about 1-½ the size of a modern
football field.

when the ark is ready, the windows of Heaven were opened." (Genesis 7:11). The flood waters
then covered the earth "fifteen cubits upwards…and the mountains were covered…and every
living substance was destroyed." After forty days and forty nights of rain, and a further hundred
and fifty days, the waters subside, and Noah and his Ark came to rest, …upon the mountains
of Ararat." (Gen 8:4)

After the deluge, God orders Noah to "be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth." (Gen
9:1). The notion that the remains of Noah’s Ark must still be on top of Mount Ararat began
both to harden into fact and spread throughout the Christian world.