Sunday, June 12, 2011

Beautiful Mountain : Mount Ararat

This article is about the tallest mountain in Turkey. For the biblical toponym, see Mountains of Ararat.
Mount Ararat (see below details on names) is a snow-capped, dormant volcanic cone in Turkey. It has two peaks: Greater Ararat (the tallest peak in Turkey, and the entire Armenian plateau with an elevation of 5,137 m/16,854 ft) and Lesser Ararat (with an elevation of 3,896 m/12,782 ft).

The Ararat massif is about 40 km (25 mi) in diameter. The Iran-Turkey boundary skirts east of Lesser Ararat, the lower peak of the Ararat massif. It was in this area that by the Tehran Convention of 1932 a border change was made in Turkey's favor, permitting her to occupy the eastern flank of the massif.[5]

Mount Ararat in Judeo-Christian tradition is associated with the "Mountains of Ararat" where according to the book of Genesis, Noah's ark came to rest. It also plays a significant role in Armenian nationalism and irredentis
Names and etymology
    * Ararat - The Bible says that Noah's ark landed on the mountains of Ararat. This does not refer to any specific mountain or peak, but rather a mountain range within the region of Ararat, which was the name of an ancient proto-Armenian kingdom also known as Urartu.[6] Nonetheless, one particular tradition identifies the mountain as Mount Masis, the highest peak in the Armenian Highland, which is therefore called Mount Ararat.[6] (As opposed to the Armenian and European tradition, Semitic tradition identifies the mountain as Judi Dagh located in Turkey near Cizre.)[note 1] According to the medieval Armenian historian Moses of Khoren in his History of Armenia, the plain of Ayrarat (directly north of the mountain) got its name after King Ara the Handsome[7] (the great grandson of Amasya). Here the Assyrian Queen Semiramis is said to have lingered for a few days after the death of Ara.[7] According to Thomson, the mountain is called Ararat (Armenian: Արարատ) corresponding to Ayrarat, the name of the province.[note 2][note 3]
    * Masis (Armenian: Մասիս) - is the Armenian name for the peak of Ararat, the plural Masikʿ (Armenian: Մասիք) may refer to both peaks.[7] The History of Armenia derives the name from a king Amasya, the great-grandson of the Armenian patriarch Hayk, who is said to have called the mountain Masis after his own name.[7]
    * Çiyayê Agirî (Fiery Mountain), Çiyayê Alavhat and Grîdax (Kurdish): This entire tree name referred a volcanic characteristic of Mount Ararat. It is the only name to have a clear, descriptive etymology while also indicating the preservation of folk memory.[8]
    * Ağrı Dağı (Mountain of Ağrı) - The Ottoman Turkish name was Aghur Dagh اغـر طﺎﻍ [note 4] means heavy mountain. Since Ağrı literally means "pain" in Turkic languages such as Azeri and Turkish, the toponym has been popularly rendered as "Painful Mountain". It is almost certainly, however, a borrowing of the Kurdish toponym. Ağrı is also a province in the Eastern Anatolian Region of Turkey, which derived its name from the mountain in 1949.[9] During the Ottoman Empire era the Ağrı village was originally called Karakilise (black church).[8]
    * Kuh-e-Nuh (Noah's Mountain): (Persian: کوه نوح, IPA: [ˈkuːhe ˈnuːx], Kuh-e Nuh) , also influenced by the flood story, this time via the Islamic view of Noah.[8]

Geography

Mount Ararat is located in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey between Doğubayazıt and Iğdır, near the border with Iran, Armenia and Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan, between the Aras and Murat Rivers.[1] Its summit is located some 16 km (10 mi) west of the Iran and 32 km (20 mi) south of the Armenian border. The Ararat plain runs along its northwest to western side.
Geology
Ararat is a stratovolcano, formed of lava flows and pyroclastic ejecta, with no volcanic crater. Above the height of 4,100 m (13,451 ft), the mountain mostly consists of igneous rocks covered by an ice cap.[10] A smaller 3,896 m (12,782 ft) cone, Little Ararat, rises from the same base, southeast of the main peak. The lava plateau stretches out between the two pinnacles. The bases of these two mountains is approximately 1,000 km2 (386 sq mi).[11] The formation of Ararat is hard to retrieve geologically, but the type of vulcanism and the position of the volcano raise the idea that subduction relation vulcanism occurred when the Tethys Ocean closed during the Neogene.[12]
Elevation

An elevation of 5,165 m (16,946 ft) for Mount Ararat is still given by some authorities. However, a number of other sources, such as public domain and verifiable SRTM data[13] and a 2007 GPS measurement show that the alternatively widespread figure of 5,137 m (16,854 ft) is probably more accurate, and that the true elevation may be even lower due to the thick layer of snow-covered ice cap which permanently remains on the top of the mountain. 5,137 m is also supported by numerous topographic maps.[14]
Activity

It is not known when the last eruption of Ararat occurred; there are no historic or recent observations of large-scale activity recorded. It seems that Ararat was active in the 3rd millennium BC; under the pyroclastic flows, artifacts from the early Bronze Age and remains of human bodies have been found.[3]

However, it is known that Ararat was shaken by a large earthquake in July 1840, the effects of which were largest in the neighborhood of the Ahora Gorge (a northeast trending chasm that drops 1,825 metres (5,988 ft) from the top of the mountain). An unstable part of the northern slope collapsed and a chapel, a monastery, and a village were covered by rubble. According to some sources, Ararat erupted then as well, albeit under the ground water level.[3]
Climbing Mount Ararat
First recorded ascent in modern times
Dr. Friedrich Parrot, with the help of Khachatur Abovian, was the first explorer in modern times to reach the summit of Mount Ararat, subsequent to the onset of Russian rule in 1829.[4] Abovian and Parrot crossed the Aras River and headed to the Armenian village of Agori situated on the northern slope of Ararat 4,000 feet above sea level. Following the advice of Harutiun Alamdarian of Tbilisi, they set up a base camp at the Monastery of Saint Jacob some 2,400 feet higher, at an elevation of 6,375 feet. Abovian was one of the last travelers to visit Agori and the monastery before a disastrous earthquake completely buried both in May 1840. Their first attempt to climb the mountain, using the northeastern slope, failed as a result of lack of warm clothing.

Six days later, on the advice of Stepan Khojiants, the village chief of Agori, the ascent was attempted from the northwestern side. After reaching an elevation of 16,028 feet they turned back because they did not reach the summit before sundown. They reached the summit on their third attempt at 3:15 p.m. on October 9, 1829. Abovian dug a hole in the ice and erected a wooden cross facing north. Abovian also picked up a chunk of ice from the summit and carried it down with him in a bottle, considering the water holy. On November 8, Parrot and Abovian climbed up Lesser Ararat. Impressed with Abovian's thirst for knowledge, Parrot arranged for a Russian state scholarship for Abovian to study at the University of Dorpat in 1830. In 1845, the German mineralogist Otto Wilhelm Hermann von Abich climbed Ararat with Abovian. Abovian's third and last ascent to Ararat was with the Englishman Henry Danby Seymour in 1846.

Between June and July 2008, the Guatemalan climber Jaime Viñals in a special issue "bonded" Mount Ararat with the Mount Teide (Spain), in an ascent to each of these two peaks in a span of less than a month. Conquering the first summit of Ararat on June 24 and immediately after coming to Tenerife to climb Mount Teide crowning on 8 July. With the conquest of these summits, peaks was 21 achieved the international list of "50 most prominent summits in the world".[15][16]
Later ascents
Date     Person(s) climbed     Comment
October 9, 1829     Johann Jacob Friedrich Wilhelm Parrot and Khachatur Abovian     First ascent of the summit of Mount Ararat[4] Started from the monastery of St. Jacob (Surb Hakob) and made the ascent by the north-western slope.
August 5, 1834     Kozma Spassky-Avtonomov     Climbed Ararat from Akori, to prove that the stars could be seen at noon and used ice from the summit to baptize his son[17]
August 8–9, 1835     Karl Behrens[17]     Imperial Russian Georgraphical Society attested to the expedition.
July 29, 1845     Otto Wilhelm Hermann von Abich     Armenian guide led him up the southeastern face from Sardar Bulak, a Cossack station with a well, located in the middle of the wide semicircular valley or sloping plain between Greater and Lesser Ararat. Abich I & II Glaciers named after him.[17] Climbed western and eastern summit.[4] They climbed from Sardar Bulak.
1846     Henry Danby Seymour     With 2 Armenians and a Cossack officer[17] Climbed from New Akori.
August 1–9, 1850     Iosif Khodko (Иосиф Ходько), P.H. Moritz, N. V. Khanikov and many others     Ascended from Sardar Bulak. Six days were spent on top of Mt. Ararat[17]
June 29, 1856     English Major Robert Stuart     With major Alick J. Fraser, Reverend Walter Thursby, James Theobald, John Evans of Darley Abbey. They climbed from Bayazid.
August 31, 1876     James Bryce     He was alone. And he founded a timber at 3965 m (13,500 ft)[17] He climbed from Sardar Bulak.
1878     G. P. Baker     He climbed from Sardar Bulak.
1882     Sivoloboff    
August 13, 1888     Yevgeniy Markov     With Ivan Kovalewski and Mosokevich (young lady)[17] They climbed from Saradar Bulak.
1888     Semenoff    
1889     Raphalovich and others     He climbed from Sardar Bulak.
July 4, 1891     Thomas Gaskell Allen, Jr. and William Lewis Sachtleben [4]     First American ascent of the summit of Mount Ararat [4] He climbed from Bayazid.
1893     Postukhoff     He climbed from Sardar Bulak.
October 1893     H. F. B. Lynch     With Rudolph Taugwalder[17] and H. B. Lynch
1897     Herr A. Oswald[17] Eine Besteigung des Ararat, Alpenclub, Berne, 1899–1900, vol. XXXV. pp. 157–183    
September 5, 2009     Erik Weihenmayer, Edwin Albert Weihenmayer, Gökmen Önay, Bahar Ganjavi, Behrouz Khabbaz Beheshti, Seyed Hassan Moghimi [18]     Erik Weihenmayer is first known blind person to reach the summit of Mount Ararat. Group guided by Gökmen Önay from Turkey. Hassan Moghimi Iran, born without one hand and he is professional cyclist.[18]
Climbing routes

The climb is long, but there is a fairly easy route from the south in late summer for climbers who are familiar with the use of axe and crampons. Snow covers the last 400 m (¼ mile) year-round.[citation needed] There are two possible campsites on the mountain, and the glacier begins around 4,800 m (15,750 ft)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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