Mount Ararat or
Mount Judi?
Where did Noah's Ark land? The Bible says: "the
mountains of Ararat" .... The Qur'an says: "the
heights". Which one? Are they the same place or are they
different? Is the Ark at both of these locations? I have received
several letters from concerned Christians and Muslims. I tried
to look at this objectively and found some interesting things.
Mount Ararat seems to be the easier mountain to find, possibly from the
large amount of information about Mount Ararat and all the "famous" searches at
that location.
Mount Judi seemed to be a little harder to find. However, through the help
of personal and Web friends, I believe I have found some information which is accurate and
revealing!
Enjoy!
Mount Ararat
Mount Judi
Ararat-Judi Reconciliation
Known in Turkey as "Agri Dagh", Mount Ararat represents
the Bible's location for Noah's Ark. To be specific and clear,
the bible says the following:
Genesis 8:4 "Then the ark rested ... on the mountains of
Ararat." (NKJV)
Note that the bible does not specifically say, Mount Ararat. However, this
being the highest place in the mountains of Ararat lends itself to become the
biblical location and thus the area of intense Ark searches by many Christians.
Known in Turkey as "Cudi Dagh", Mount Judi represents the Qur'an's location
for Noah's Ark. First and foremost, be careful when discussing the location of Mount Judi!
There is truly a lot of confusion over its location. What I mean is this:
1) The actual Mount Judi is 200 miles south
of Mount Ararat in southern Turkey.
2) Mount Judi has been mistaken for Mount Ararat and
vice versa.
The following is taken from the article by Bill Crouse in Archaeology
and Biblical Research,Noah's Ark: Its Final Berth Vol. 5, No. 3. Summer,
1992.
Cudi
Dagh is located approximately 200 miles south of Mt. Ararat in southern Turkey almost
within eyesight of the Syrian and Iraqi borders.11 The Tigris River flows at
its base. The exact co-ordinates are 37 degrees, 21 minutes N., and 42 degrees, 17 minutes
E. In literature it has also been called "Mt Judi", "Mt. Cardu",
"Mt. Quardu", "the Gordyene mountains", "Gordian mountains",
"The Karduchian mountains", "the mountains of the Kurds", and to the
Assyrians: "Mt. Nipur "(see photo #1) . It is also important to note that at
times this mountain has even been called "Mt. Ararat". At about 7000 feet
altitude it is not a terribly high mountain, though it is snow-capped most of the year.
The current edition of the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ISLAM lists it as "over 13,000 feet and
largely unexplored." We are unsure of the exact altitude, but it seems strange that
it would not be noted on our modern aerial navigation map if it were 13,000 feet!
Most modern maps do not show the location of Cudi Dagh. It is, however,
located about 25 miles from the Tigris River (see map), just east of the present Turkish
city of Gizre and still within the bounds of the Biblical region of Ararat (Urartu).12
Cudi Dagh overlooks the all-important Mesopotamian plain and is notable
for its many archaeological ruins in and around the mountain. There are also many
references to it in ancient history.13 Sennacherib (700 B.C.), the Assyrian
king, carved rock reliefs of himself on the side of the mountain (see photo #2).14
The Nestorians (a sect of Christianity) built several monasteries around the mountain
including one on the summit called "The Cloister of the Ark". It was destroyed
by lightning in 766 A.D.15 The Muslims later built a mosque on the site. In
1910, Gertrude Bell explored the area and found a stone structure still at the summit with
the shape of a ship (see photo #3) called by the locals "Sefinet Nebi Nuh"
"The Ship of Noah". Bell also reports that annually on September 14, Christians,
Jews, Muslims, Sabians and Yezidis gather on the mountain to commemorate Noah's sacrifice.16
As late as 1949 two Turkish journalists claimed to have seen the Ark on this mountain, a
ship 500 feet in length!17
For clarity I add this sensational article from the London Observer:
The Observer (London)
16 Jan 1994
'Arkologists' claim to have found Noah's Ark
By Martin Wroe
LONDON -- Noah's Ark has been found on the Turkish-Iranian border, 32
kilometres from Mount Ararat, according to the leader of a team of scientists that has
been investigating the site for six years.
The Turkish government is so convinced by the findings that, after years
of intransigence, it has designated the site one of special archaeological interest and
agreed to its excavation next summer.
The remote site
contains a buried, ship-like object, resting an altitude of 2,300 metres.
At 170 metres long and 45 metres wide, it conforms almost exactly to the
300 cubit by 50 cubit boat that God told Noah to build, according to Genesis 6 in the
Bible.
On surrounding terrain, the American and Middle Eastern scientists have
identified huge stones with holes carved at one end, which they believe are
"drogue-stones," dragged behind ships in the ancient world to stabilize them.
Radar soundings indicate unusual levels of iron-oxide distribution.
Salih Bayraktutan, head of geology at Turkey's Ataturk University,
estimates the age of the 'vessel' at more than 100,000 years.
"It is a man-made structure and for sure it is Noah's Ark."
The site is directly below the mountain of Al Judi, named in the Qur'an as
the Ark's resting place.
David Fasold, an American shipwreck specialist with no
religious affiliation, has led the investigation. He says subsurface radar surveys of the
site have produced "very good pictures."
"The radar imagery at about 25 metres down from the stern is so clear
that you can count the floorboards between the walls."
He believes the team has found the fossilized remains of the upper deck
and that the original reed substructure has disappeared.
But the findings have infuriated the scores of Christian Ark-hunters who
travel to Turkey, convinced the Ark will only be found on Mount Ararat.
Fasold, who calls himself an "Arkologist," also argues that it
was not a great flood that pushed the Ark into the mountains. He says it was "an
astronomical event causing a tectonic upheaval, a tidal bore causing gravitational pull in
the ocean waters that forced the boat into the mountains."
Some of Fasold's team of geophysicists and geologists are reserving final
judgement until the excavation and carbon-dating.
But in a British TV series on the environment next month, team member
Vendyl Jones, a Middle East archeologist and inspiration for film character Indiana Jones,
says it is "between maybe and probably" that they have found Noah's Ark.
As you see in the drawing, the "buried ship" or the item
discussed above is located south of Mount Ararat by 20 miles.
Additionally, as indicated by the drawing, Mount Judi is locate 30 miles
south of Lake Van which is 200 miles south of Mount Ararat.
Even with the above information, could Mount Ararat and
Mount Judi be the same location? Bear with me and let's see.....
Taken from Charles Berlitz, The Lost Ship of Noah, we find the
following:
Mount Judi, Spelled Cudi-Dagh in Turkish means "highest" or
"the heights" in Arabic and for this reason a number of people in Eastern
Turkey, including some Islamic scholars, think Al Judi refers to Ararat.
But Cudi-Dagh is actually located south of Lake Van, rising to a height of 7700 feet. The
local tribesmen there maintain that the Ark drifted to a high point in the Cudi mountain
chain and that the remains of it are still on the top of Cudi-Dagh, the highest mountain
in the area. ....
There is a mountain named Judi. There is a mountain named Ararat. They are
both located within the bounds of the Biblical region of Ararat (Urartu). It is very
possible that both the Bible and the Qur'an speak in unison on this issue. Could it be
that both Mount Ararat and Mount Judi are the same location? As you can see, some
of today's authors use the two words and locations interchangeably regarding the
location of the Ark.
In peace, I submit to you that the Qur'an location of "the
heights" and the Bible location of the "mountains of Ararat" are the same
location even though there are two different mountains named as such. The location that is
currently studied and the highest location in the Ararat region is Mount Ararat. It is
this mountain that can be identified by both holy books as the mountain that Prophet
Noah's Ark rested. As always, I humbly say, inshaa Allah (let it be according to God's
will). |