A9 • HISTORY
THE BATTLEFIELD CHRONICLES • FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013
GEOGRAPHY
HISTORY
Languages today: why so many?
HENRY M. MORRIS
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL
Ararat, a mountainous plateau
STAFF REPORTER
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL
Ararat is a mountainous plateau in western Asia from which flow in different directions the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Aras and the Choruk rivers.
(By some, the river Aras has been associated with the otherwise unidentified
Gihon and Pishon rivers mentioned in the second chapter of the Bible.) Its
general elevation is 6,000 feet above sea-level. The Babylonian name was
Urartu, a word that is translated
in the King James Version as ArDid You Know?
menia, which correctly represents
the region designated. In Genesis
8:4 the ark is said to have rested
• Noah worked on the Ark for
“upon the mountains of Ararat,”
over 100 years.
i.e. in the mountainous region of
Armenia, (the plural showing that
• Noah was 945 years old when
the mountain peak known as Arahe died.
rat was not referred to.) This peak
is of volcanic origin and lies outside
• The total available floor space
the general region, rising from the
on the Ark would have been
lowlands of the Araxes (Aras) River
over 100,000 square feet, which
to a height of 17,000 feet, supported
would be more floor space than
by another peak seven miles disin 20 standard-sized basketball
tant, 13,000 feet high. It is only in
courts.
comparatively modern times that
the present name has been given to
it. The Armenians still call it Mas• The total cubic volume would
sis, but believe, however, that Noah
have been 1,518,000 cubic feet.
was buried at Nachitchevan near its
That would be equal to the
base. The “mountains of Ararat” on
capacity of 569 railroad stock
which the ark rested were probably
cars.
those of the Kurdish range which
separates Armenia from Mesopotamia and Kurdistan. In the Babylonian account the place is called “the
mountain of Nizir” which is east of Assyria. The Kurds still regard Jebel Judi,
a mountain on the boundary between Armenia and Kurdistan, as the place
where the ark rested.
Answers to Noah’s ark quiz
on page A7
1.C, 2.A, 3.D, 4.D, 5.D, 6.B,
7.C, 8.A, 9.D, 10.A, 11.C,
12.A, 13.A
Answers to Abraham quiz
on page A7
1.C, 2.C, 3.D, 4.A, 5.D, 6.C,
7.D, 8.C
As far as the great proliferation of different [