Ararat National Park
Ararat is the national park of Turkey, which is the largest volcanic massif in the Armenian Highlands. Aratat consists of 2 volcanoes - Greater Ararat ( 5165 m ) and Small Ararat ( 3127 m ). Above 4 km, eternal snow and about 30 glaciers are located, the largest of them is the glacier of St. Jacob with a length of over 2 kilometers. In 2004, Turkish authorities in this territory with an area of 88 km2 formed a national park and set a course for the development of ecotourism in the region.
The name of the mountain came from the Bible, which describes the story of the Noah's Ark, which stopped at the top of the mountain. And since Aratat is the most sublime peak in the region, the ark should be here. The very word Ararat came from the Assyrian name of the country and the people of Urartu.
The peoples inhabiting this territory have many legends about grief. For the Armenians, the mountain is sacred, because I think that they are the first to settle here after the global flood. Ararat is even present on the coat of arms of Armenia, although in 1921 they gave Turkey away. Among the peoples of Persia, it happened to me that Ararat is the cradle of mankind, 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 from the top of the mountain the Chaldeans bowed to the starry sky, and three of them followed the Bethlehem star to the place where Jesus Christ was born.
Somewhere 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 found its remains. The most noble was the expedition of Fernan Navarre, who brought as he claimed the fragment of the ark. A radiocarbon performed showed that the wreckage is more than 5000 years old. But even more significant interest was caused by the US intelligence flight in 1949 and the Ararat anomaly they found - an object that stuck out of snow on the northwestern slope of Mount Ararat, 2200 meters from the top, in shape like a ark. At this time, where they are trying to find the ark, but the area is closed due to passing the Armenian-Turkish border near.
The park has a rather harsh climate. It is dry in summer, and in winter it often snows, but it does not last long. Ararat has a bad water, since all the liquid seeps through loose rock. At the southern slope is a small Lake Balyk-gul. Of the vegetation on the mountain, only a small birch grove near Maly Ararat.
Every year, many hunters from other countries visit Turkey to hunt mountain goats, wild boars, chamois. In addition to these often found animals, you can see here: noble deer, bears. leopards, badgers, a bathhouse, a goat. On the plain lives a jackal and steppe lynx, wolf, fox, hare.
