Kingdom
of Urartu
Click to enlarge - mountains
marked with circles are possible landing sites
The King James Bible refers to the place Noah's Ark landed
as "the mountains of Ararat". However, at the time
The Pentateuch was composed, it would have been more geographically
correct to refer to this area as the mountains of Urartu (see
Genesis 8:4). During the translation of the King James Bible,
"the mountains of Ararat" were inserted in place of
Urartu. This too is geographically correct, because by then
the kingdom of Urartu had disappeared and the field of archeology
didn't formally exist at that time. With that in mind, it must
be realized that in order to establish candidate mountains to
search for Noah's Ark, a thorough search must be made of the
mountains of Urartu.
The ancient Kingdom of Urartu is an area of ancient boundaries
in southwest Asia, in the region of the Black Sea and southwest
of the Caspian Sea. This area is composed of western Armenia,
eastern Turkey and northwest Iran. Its history can be traced
to Assyrian sources around the 13th century BC. "Urartu" is
an Assyrian name. The Urartians themselves called their country
Biainili and their capital, located at modern Van, Tushpa (Turushpa).
Most remains of Urartian settlements are found between the four
lakes Çildir and Van in Turkey, Urmia in Iran, and Sevan in
Armenia, with a sparser extension westward to the Euphrates
River.
The above map shows the ancient kingdom of Urartu. The white
circles depict the location of high mountains with annual snow
caps (Mt. Ararat is the only one with a permanent snow cap).
The purple circles are mountain peaks that aren't as high. Hopefully,
you can now see the argument as to which mountain Noah's Ark
landed. From a scriptural perspective, it could be any mountain
in Urartu.
This map shows the names and locations of high peaks in the
region.
This is a Digital Elevation Map (DEM) showing the heights
of mountains in the Urartu
