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 ARAL-CASPIAN

R E G I O N—A R A R A T

Ara.l-Ca.spia.ri Regfion (or Depression) is the name which is given by geographers to the lowlands in the east of the Caspian Sea, and, by extension, to all the territory comprised between the Lower Volga, the AralIrtysh water-parting, the Dzungarian Alatau, and the Hindu Kush. These were also the limits given to it in an excellent work on the geo-botany of this region by the Russian botanist, BorschofF. (See Transcaspian Territory.) Owing to its special geological structure and vegetation, the general aspect of its steppes, exposed to the powerful disintegrating agency of the wind, and its sandy deserts alternating with prairies and oases (see Kara-kum), it represents a distinct geographical type. Large areas are covered with the characteristic Aral-Caspian deposits, which spread as a thin layer, attaining a maximum thickness of 90 feet, but are very much destroyed by the rivers, which have often changed their courses in recent times, and by the winds, which freely blow over this flat, open territory. They attain their fullest development in the part of the Aral-Caspian region which lies to the east of the Caspian Sea, and consist nearly always of a yellow-grayish clay, occasionally taking the character of a more or less compact sandstone of the same colour. Their typical fossils are shells of species still living in both the Caspian and the Aral, but in the shallow parts of them only; namely, according to MushketofF, Gardium edule, L., Dreyssena polymarpha, V. Bened., Neritina liturata, Eichw., Adacna vitrea, Eichw., Hydrobia stagnalis, L., in the Kara - kum; and Lithoglyphus caspius, Krynitz., Hydrobia stagnalis, Anodontaponderosa, Pfr., and the sponge, Metschnikowia tuberculata, Grimm, in the Kyzyl-kum. All these are inhabitants of the littoral zone, and only the Lithoglyphus caspius is found at greater depths, not exceeding, however, 100 fathoms in the Caspian Sea. The exact limits of the great AralCaspian Post-Pliocene Sea are not yet settled, except in the north-west, where the Ergheni hills of the Kalmyk steppe are a distinct barrier. As to its northern limits, the same Aral-Caspian deposits are known to exist 80 miles, but not more than from 130 to 200 miles, north of Lake Aral. They quite certainly do not cross the Aral-Irtysh waterparting. Their eastern limit lies some 100 miles from Lake Aral, but SevertsofF maintained that they extend also into the drainage area of Lake Balkhash (q.v.). In the south the same deposits, containing the same species of Cardium, Dreyssena, Neritina, and Hydrobia, are known to spread without interruption, 160 miles from Lake Aral, as far as the Bala-ishem wells, in the Sary-kamysh depression (whose surface is below the level of the Caspian), and up the Uzboi for 100 miles from the Caspian. As to their exact extension up the Amu and the Syr, it is not yet known. It is thus concluded that the Aral-Caspian basin had, in Post-Pliocene times, a very wide extension, but that it contained very large islands—Ust-Urt, &c.—which divided it into several parts, its eastern portion communicating with the western, but by one or two narrow straits. These channels, which were formerly taken for old beds of the Amu-daria, have only dried up at a recent epoch, and most probably they existed in historical times. See Musiiketoff’s Turkestan, St Petersburg, 1886, where all indications ofliterature are given. (p. a. K.) Aran Islands, South; three islands—Inishmore, Inishmaan, and Inisheer—lying across Galway Bay on the W. coast of Ireland. The Congested Districts Board has of recent years made efforts to improve the condition of the inhabitants, especially by introducing better methods of fishing. A curing station has been established at Killeany. Population about 3000. Ararat, (1) Assyrian Urardhu, the country in which

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the Ark rested after the Deluge (Gen. viii. 4), and to which the murderers of Sennacherib fled (2 Kings xix. 37; Isaiah xxxvii. 38). The name Urardhu, originally that of a principality which included Mount Ararat and the plain of the Araxes, is given in Assyrian inscriptions from the 9 th century b.c. downwards to a kingdom that at one time included the greater part of the later Armenia. The native name of the kingdom was Biainas, and its capital was Dhuspas, now Van. The first king, Sarduris I. (circ. 833 b.c.), subdued the country of the Upper Euphrates and Tigris. His inscriptions are written in cuneiform, in Assyrian, whilst those of his successors are in cuneiform, in their own language, which is neither Aryan nor Semitic. The kings of Biainas extended their kingdom eastward and westward, and defeated the Assyrians and Hittites. But Sarduris II. was overthrown by Tiglath Pileser II. (743 b.c.), and driven north of the Araxes, where he built Armavir, Armauria. Interesting specimens of Biainian art have been found on the site of the palace of Rusas II., near Van. Shortly after 645 b.c. the kingdom fell, possibly conquered by Cyaxares, and a way was thus opened for the immigration of the Aryan Armenians. The name Ararat is unknown to the Armenians of the present day. The limits of the Biblical Ararat are not known, but they must have included the lofty Armenian plateau which overlooks the plain of the Araxes on the north, and that of Mesopotamia on the south. It is only natural that the highest and most striking mountain in the district should have been regarded as that upon which the Ark rested, and that the old name of the country should have been transferred to it. According to the Babylonian account of the Deluge, the resting-place of the Ark was “ on the mountain of Nizir,” which some writers have identified with Mount Rowanduz, and others with Mount Elburz, near Tehran. The Kurds, Syrians, and Nestorians regard Jebel Judi, on the left bank of the Tigris, near Jezfre, as the mountain. Sayce, “Cuneiform Inscriptions of Lake Van,” in Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, vols. xiv., xx., and xxvi.—Maspero, Histoire ancimne des peuples de VOrient classique, tom. iii. Les Empires, Paris, 1899.—Articles, “Ararat,” in Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, and Encyclopaedia Biblica. (2) Ararat, Armenian Massis, Turkish Egri Dagh, “ Painful Mountain,”- Persian, Koh-i-Nuh, “ Mountain of Noah,” is the name given to the culminating point of the Armenian plateau which rises to a height of 17,100 feet above the sea. The massif of Ararat rises on the north and east out of the alluvial plain of the Araxes, here from 2500 feet to 3000 feet above the sea, and on the south-west sinks into the plateau of Bayezid, about 4500 feet. It is thus isolated on all sides but the northwest, where a col about 6900 feet high connects it with a long ridge of volcanic mountains. Out of the massif rise two peaks, “ their bases confluent at a height of 8800 feet, their summits about 7 miles apart.” The higher, Great Ararat, is “a huge broad-shouldered mass, more of a dome than a cone”; the lower, Little Ararat, 12,840 feet, on which the territories of the Tsar, the Sultan, and the Shah meet, is “an elegant cone or pyramid, rising with steep, smooth, regular sides into a comparatively sharp peak” (Bryce). Both peaks are entirely composed of igneous rock, but all eruptive activity has long ceased. On the north and west the slopes of Great Ararat are covered with glittering fields of unbroken neve. The only true glacier is on the north-east side, at the bottom of a large chasm which runs into the heart of the mountain. The great height of the snow-line, 14,000 feet, compared with the average of the Alps, 8500-9000 feet, is due to the small rainfall and the upward rush of dry air from the plain of the Araxes. The middle zone of Ararat, 5000-