AR'ARAT (.Ararat, in the old Armenian dialect A iarat, i.e. the plains of the Aryans). The ancient name of the fertile plateau through which flows the river Aras, or Araxes. Ararat appears in the Old Testament (11. Kings xix. 37) as the place to which the sons of Sennacherib fled after murdering their father. In Assyrian texts the country is also mentioned frequently from the Ninth Century n.e. onward under the form Urarti, though it would appear that the name was used somewhat indefinitely for a larger district than the Ararat of classical writers. It was the ambition of the Assyrian kings to include Urarti in their dominions, and frequent military expedi tions were made against Yairi, as the vast tract to the north and northeast of Assyria was com monly termed. It occupies the centre of the mountainous region of Armenia. belonging partly to Turkey and partly to Russia. According to Genesis (viii. 4) it was on the "mountains of Ararat" that Noah's Ark rested after the Del uge, from which it appears that Ararat was properly the designation of an entire district. Such, however, was the general interest attach ing to the Biblical tradition, that the name Ararat became attached to a particular moun tain, the one called by the Armenians Nasis Leusar, or "mountains of the ark"; by the Turks Agliri-Dagh. "steep mountain"; and by the Persians, Koh-i-Sith, "Noah's mountain." It rises in two volcanic cones, known as the greater and lesser Ararat; the former, which attains the height of 16,912 feet (according to another measurement. 17,212 feet) above the level of the
sea, is covered with perpetual snow. it is, next to Mount Demavend, the highest elevation of Western Asia, and since 1827 it forms the point where the Russian, Turkish, and Persian ter ritories meet, its summit being in Russian terri tory. In 1840 the form of the mountain was partially changed by a frightful and destructive earthquake. Previous to this period, at the base of the mountain and at a point where a stream runs front a wild gorge, there stood the village of Arguri, or Aguri. It was surrounded by gardens and orchards, and had upwards of one thousand inhabitants. In the ravine, 2300 feet above the village, stood the Armenian convent of St. James, and 1000 feet higher still a chapel dedicated to St. James. The beauty and mild air of the district made Arguri a favorite sum mer resort of the richer inhabitants of Armenia. It was destined to undergo a great-change, how ever. On July 2, 1840, dreadful shocks of earthquake were felt. Great masses of the moun tain were thrown into the plain, the ravine was closed, the convent and chapel disappeared, and the village and the gardens which surrounded it were buried under rocks, earth, and ice, with all the inhabitants.