The Sellers, Mostly Tartars, Always Selected A Small Lot And Offered It To Me As A Present.

The road led continually through large, fertile valleys round the foot of Ararat.

Today I saw the majestic mountain very clearly, and in tolerable proximity. I should think we were not more than two or three miles from it. It seemed, from its magnitude, as if separated from the other mountains, and standing alone; but it is in fact, connected with the chain of Taurus by a low range of hills. Its highest summit is divided in such a way that between two peaks there is a small plain, on which it is said that Noah's ark was left after the deluge. There are people who affirm that it would still be found there if the snow could be removed.

In the more recent treatises on geography, the height of Ararat is given as 16,000 feet; in the older ones, as 11,000. The Persians and Armenians call this mountain Macis; the Grecian writers describe it as a part of the Taurus range. Ararat is quite barren, and covered above with perpetual snow; lower down lies the cloister, Arakilvank, at the place where Noah is said to have taken up his first abode.

20th August. We encamped in the neighbourhood of the village Gadis. Many commentators of the Scriptures place the garden of Eden in the Armenian province of Ararat. In any case, Armenia has been the scene of most important events.

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