Ararat National Park
Ararat is a national park in Turkey, which is the largest volcanic massif in the Armenian Highlands. Aratat consists of 2 volcanoes - Big Ararat (5165 m) and Little Ararat (3127 m). Above 4 km, there are eternal snows and about 30 glaciers, the largest of which is the St. James Glacier with a length of over 2 kilometers. In 2004, the Turkish authorities established a national park in this 88 km2 area and set a course for the development of ecotourism in the region.
The name of the mountain originated from the Bible, which describes the story of Noah's Ark, which stopped at the top of the mountain. And since Aratat is the most elevated peak in the region, the ark should be here. The word Ararat itself comes from the Assyrian name of the country and people of Urartu.
The peoples inhabiting this territory have many legends about the mountain. The mountain is sacred to Armenians, because I think they are the first to settle here after the flood. There is even an Ararat on the coat of arms of Armenia, although it was given to Turkey in 1921. Among the peoples of Persia, it was said to me that Ararat is the cradle of humanity, and the village of Arguri on one of the slopes of the mountain is the place where Noah planted the 1st vineyard. It was believed that the Chaldeans worshiped the starry sky from the top of the mountain, and three of them followed the star of Bethlehem to the birthplace of Jesus Christ.
Since the 14th century, there have been attempts to find Noah's Ark. In the 19th and 20th centuries, many expeditions took place here, although the ark itself was not discovered, but scientists believe that they have found its remains. The most notable was the expedition of Fernand Navarre, who brought, as he claimed, a fragment of the ark. The conducted radiocarbon dating has shown that the fragment is more than 5,000 years old. But an even more significant interest was aroused by a US reconnaissance flight in 1949 and the Ararat anomaly they found - an object that stuck out of the snow on the northwestern slope of Mount Ararat, 2,200 meters from the summit, shaped like an ark. Currently, they are trying to find the ark, but the area is closed due to the passage of the Armenian-Turkish border nearby.
The climate in the park is quite harsh. It's dry in summer, and it often snows in winter, but it doesn't last long. Ararat has a bad water situation, as all the liquid seeps through the loose rock. There is a small lake Balyk-gel on the southern slope. Of the vegetation on the mountain, there is only a small birch grove near Little Ararat.
Many hunters from other countries visit Turkey every year to hunt mountain goats, wild boars, chamois. In addition to these frequently seen animals, you can see red deer and bears. leopards, badgers, fallow deer, roe deer. The plain is inhabited by jackal and steppe lynx, wolf, fox, hare.
