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Ararat[ar´urat] Pronunciation Key, Turkish Agri Dagi, name of two mountains, Little Ararat (12,877 ft/3,925 m) and Great Ararat (16,945 ft/5,165 m), E Turkey, near the Iranian and Armenian borders. The tradition that Mt. Ararat is the resting place of Noah's ark is based on a misreading of Gen. 8.4, which properly reads "upon the mountains of Ararat," indicating a country or region. The land or the kingdom of Ararat (fl. c.9th–7th cent. B.C.), called in Assyrian Urartu, was situated between the river Araks and the lakes Van and Rezaiyeh. It included all the land later called Armenia. Its language, written in cuneiform, has no relation to any known language, except perhaps to the Horite.
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