(2) Kingdom of Ararat. The other Scrip ture text (Jcr. li:271 mentions Ararat, along with Minni and Ashkcnaz, as kingdoms sum moned to arm themselves against Babylon. In the parallel place in Is. xiii:2-4. the invaders of Babylonia are described as 'issuing from the mountains;' and if by Minni we understand the Minyas in Armenia, mentioned by Nicholas of Damascus (Josephus, Antiq. i:3, 6), and by ilshkenaz sonic country on the Eu.rine Sea, which may have had its original name, .4.renos, from Ashkenaz, a son of Gomcr, the progenitor of the in memory of which the whole province was called .1ray-iarat, the ruin of Arai.
(3) Babylonian Tablets. In the Story of the Deluge, as given in the Accadian account found on the Babylonian Tablets, Sisuthros built the ship in which he was saved. It was in the land of Ni7ir in which the vessel of Sisuthros rested. This country was situated among the mountains of Pir Main. to the northeast of Babylonia. Ro•andiz, the highest peak in this part of Asia, rises a little to the north of the Pir Main, and it seems probable, therefore, that it represents 'the mountain of Ni7ir.' The whole country had been included by the Accadians in the vast territory of Guti, or Gutium, which roughly corresponds with the modern Kurdistan It is accordingly worth notice that a Eastern tradition makes Gebel Gudi, or Monnt Gudi, the mountahi on which the ark rested. and that in early Jewish legend this mountain is called 'mbar or Bads, the boundary between Armenia and Kurdistan. in the land of the Minni. Ararat, or Urardhu, as it is written in the cunci form inscriptions, denoted Armenia, and more particularly the district about Lake Van ; so that 'the mountains of Ararat,' of which Genesis speaks, might easily have been the Kurdish ranges of Southern Armenia. It was not until a very late period that the name of Ararat was first applied and then confined to the lofty moun tains in the north. (Sayre, Fresh Light from Ancient Monuments, pp. 33, 34. See also The Monuments and the Old Testament, by Ira Maurice Price, pp. 89. sq.).
But though it may be concluded with tolerable certainty that the land of Ararat is to be identi fied with a portion of Armenia, we possess no historical data for fixing on any one mountain in that country as the resting place of the ark.
The ancients attached a peculiar sacredness to the tops of high mountains, and hence the be lief was early propagated that the ark must have rested on some such lofty eminence.
(4) Early Tradition. The earliest tradition fixed on one of the chain of mountains which separate Armenia on the south from Mesopo tamia, and which, as they also inclose Kurdistan, the land of the Kurds, obtained the name of the Kardu, or Carduchian range, corrupted into Gordiwan and Cordyzean. This opinion prevailed
among the Chaldeans, if we rely on the testi mony of Berosus as quoted by Josephus (Antiq. i:3, 6) : 'It is said there is still some part of this ship in Armenia, at the mountain of the Cordy wans, and that people carry off pieces of the bitumen, which they use as amulets.' The same Is reported by Abydenus (in Euseb. Prop. ix:4), who says they employed the wood of the vessel against diseases. Hence we are prepared to find the tradition adopted by the Chaldee para phrasts, as well as by the Syriac translators and commentators, and all the Syrian churches.
(5) Known to Europeans. The mountain thus known to Europeans as Ararat consists of two immense conical elevations, one peak con siderably lower than the other, towering in massive and majestic grandeur from the valley of the Aras, the ancient Araxes. Smith and Dwight give its position N. 57° W. of Nakh chevan, and S. 25° W. of Erivan (Researches in Armenia, p. 267) ; and remark, in describing it before the recent earthquake, that in no part of the world had they seen any mountain whose imposing appearance could plead half so power fully as this a claim to the honor of having once been the stepping-stone between the old world and the new.
Nothing can be more beautiful than its shape, more awful than its height. All the surrounding mountains sink into insignificance when com pared to it. It is perfect in all its parts; no hard rugged feature, no unnatural prominences, everything is in harmony, and all combines to render it one of the sublimest objects in nature.
(6) Attempted Ascents. Several attempts had been made to reach the top of Ararat, but few persons had got beyond the limit of per petual snow. The French traveler, Tournefort, in the year 1700, long persevered in the face of many difficulties, but was foiled ii. the end. Be tween thirty and forty years ago the Pasha of Bayazeed undertook the ascent with no better success. The honor was reserved to a German, Dr. Parrot, in the employment of Russia. The summit of the Great Ararat is in 42' north lat. and 61° 55' east long. from Ferro. Its per pendicular height is 16.254 Paris feet above the level of the sea. and 13,35o above the plain of the Araxes. The Little Ararat is 12,284 Paris feet above the sea and 9,561 above the plain of the Araxes. The summit of Mount Ararat is a slightly convex, almost circular platform, about zoo Paris feet in diameter, composed of eternal ice, unbroken by a rock or stone.