"دليل بلاد فارس. مجلد II" [و‎‎٢‎٧] (٧٠٦/٥٨)

ARAS
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is covered with it perennidly. The mountain consists of two
cones; the radius at the base of the greater cone being about 14 miles and
that at the base of the lesser cone being a little over 9 miles. Both are
united up to an elevation of 8,000', at which point the Great and the Little
Ararat diverge. The rise is easy during the first half of the ascent; by
a mean gradation of less than 10° an altitude of 6,000' above the level
of the so is attained. From this elevation the rise is steeper ; and from
the slightly curved ridge which separates the two peaks, the Little Ararat
ascends in a conical form, with almost mathematical precision at an angle
of 45° until it reaches its northern circular summit. This summit forms
the common boundary of Russia, Persia, and Turkey.
The Gre it Ararat, on the other hand, possesses an irregular formation.
Whilst its rise between the elevations of 6,000' and 10,000' amounts
to about 30°, declivities of considerable abruptness (up to about 60°)
commence from the letter altitude on the west and south sides, and
also irregular forms, occasioned by terrace-shaped intermissions, which
resolve themselves, 2,000' below the peak, into an ice-field, which rises to
the highest summit. To the north and east the rise, although somewhat
less steep, is almost as regular as in the case of the Little Ararat. On the
north side t an enormous chasm, the sides of which are perpendicul ar, and
which are about 4,000' in height at its upper extremity, winds down from
the ice-field near the summit to an altitude of 6,000' above the level of tho
sea. Here was situated the monastery of St. James, and further down the
village of AgrI, both of which within this century have been buried by
a fall of the mountain. The other half of this chasm is filled in by a gl acier.
The l.ne of perpetual snow begins at an altitude of 13,400'; and the
summit, lies concealed beneath a white covering.
The ascent of the Ararat h .s been several times accomplished by Parrot,
Abich, Stuart, and others, but the reader is referred to Thielmann’s own
account of his ascent in 1876 for a further and lucid description of the
mountain and its ascent, and to that of Major Stuart in Teller’s “ Crimei ”.
They made the ascent in 1856, and set down the elevations as 17,323'
and 13,093' respectively for the Greater and the Lesser Ararat.
The region is very volcanic; hot springs, mineral waters and other signs
of igneous agency are common. Iron, lime and lead are found in t-6 e range.
Many Armenian ruins are found scattered about; the most extensive
appear to be those of Dambat; near Srngar is a rock-cut building of con
siderable size, very neatly chiselled out of the solid limestone°—-(TM-
mann ; Telfer; Picot, 1894.)
ARAS (OR ARAXES)—
The river forming part of the frontier between Persia and Trans-Cau-
casian-Russia. It cannot, therefore, be regarded as belonging to Persia
It rises in the spurs of the Bindagh mountains south of the Erzerum
district of Armenia, and, flow ng in a serpentine with a general easterly
direction, after a course of about 500 miles joins the Kur river about 10
miles from the Caspian, into which the combined river flows above the bay
of Kizil Agach. It has numerous tributaries both from the north-west
and south-east. The principal streams which flow into it from Azar
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