''...THERE IS A VERY TALL MOUNTIAN ON WHICH, IT IS SAID, RESTS NOAH’S ARC.  THIS MOUNTAIN IS SO HIGH AND WIDE THAT, IT TAKES MORE THAN TWO DAYS TO WALK AROUND IT.  THE DEEP SNOW ON its PEAK REMAINS YEAR ROUND, NOWBODY CAN CLIMB IT.    ONLY THE LOWER SLOPES…..THE VEGETATION (PLANT COVER) IS SO RICH AND PLENTIFUL THAT, IN THE SUMMER, ANIMALS FROM NEAR AND FAR COME TO FEED, BUT THE SUPPLY (SOURCE) IS NEVER EXHAUSTED.''

Marco Polo, 1295

Mount Ararat is located in Eastern Turkey on the borders of Iran, Armenia (formerly U.S.S.R.), and Nachivan. This volcanic mountain rises 5,137 meters or 16,945 feet high above the plains and is the highest location in the ancient kingdom of Urartu, a region which covered thousands of square miles. Ararat is the bastardized name of Urartu from the Hebrew Torah written by Moses (c. 1450 BC) which only included the consonants "rrt". The Assyrians wrote about battles against the Urartian tribes from the thirteenth century BC until the sixth century BC when Urartu was destroyed by the Medes. The name Urartu then vanished from history and was replaced by Ararat and Armenia in the vicinity as well as in Bible translations in English, etc. As history went on in the first and second millenia AD, the mountain became known as Ararat and the region as Armenia. Many people believe that Mount Ararat is the place where Noah's Ark landed but the Bible does not state this. It simply says that the boat landed in the Urartian mountains, of which there are hundreds, although Ararat is the highest. Since Mount Ararat is the highest location in Urartu, some people throughout history have jumped to the unproven conclusion that it was the landing place and promoted that concept as a regional tradition.

Mount Ararat may be the largest single-mass or volume mountain in the world as it is huge (one really has to see it in person to appreciate its immensity) and rises to 17,000 feet from the plains surrounding it at 2,000-3,000 feet while most other large mountains are in a mountain range with less differential and base circumference. Ararat has only a few native trees growing on it in Ahora village and several small forests on Little Ararat. Views differ as to whether Ararat formed much of its size after the flood (post-flood) or during the flood as some geologists like Seventh Day Adventist Clifford Burdick Ph.D. have claimed to find pillow lava (lava spewed into water) around the 14,000-foot level. Some geologists claim that cylindrical mountains like Little Ararat show that it is a post-flood mountain. There are also claims of fossils and sedimentary layers on Greater Ararat but these claims have not been backed up with evidence as of this date although there are fossils near Ararat. From 14,000 feet to 17,000 feet, much of the lava is covered by an ice cap which is about 17 square miles in size and is up to 300 feet deep. As computed by ArcImaging, the coordinates that cover the ice cap area on Mount Ararat are N 39 degrees 41' to N 39 degrees 44', E 44 degrees 15' 30" to E 44 degrees 19' 30". The area of this rectangle is about 31.6 square kilometers.

Since the upper reaches of this volcanic mountain is covered with broken lava rock everywhere and is currently extremely difficult to ascend or descend, its present state makes it a poor location for Noah's Ark to land and for all the animals to easily descend. Yet, Mount Ararat has the bulk of the purported eyewitnesses of the boat-like structure, especially since 1850. These "alleged" eyewitnesses are the only reason why the search should continue on the mountain.

Given the extensive research which has taken place on Mount Ararat, it seems fair to say that if Noah's Ark ever survived into modern times and is somewhere on Ararat, there are few places remaining on the mountain to search. There have been many expeditions, accounts, alleged sightings, anomalies, and claims of discovery involving Mount Ararat. What is lacking is any scientific evidence or photo that shows that Noah's Ark exists today. However, one should also consider the possibility that Noah's Ark landed on Mount Ararat and was subsequently destroyed, which is the possibility alluded to in the article Even If Noah’s Ark Is Not Proven, Noah’s Ark Still Could Have Landed On Mount Ararat .

Given all the ground and aerial expeditions (and one with sophisticated mapping capabilities), one should surmise that if the remains of Noah's Ark are indeed on Mount Ararat, they are not in plain view; if the boat is there, it must be buried. There have been 2 attempts that used sub-surface Radar (Ground Penetrating Radar - GPR) technology on Mount Ararat to look under the ice. The 1988 Willis expedition and the 1989 Aaron/Garbe/Corbin expedition used GPR. The 1988 Willis expedition successfully surveyed the eastern summit plateau and the saddle area between the two peaks, concluding there were no Ark remains under the ice. The 1989 expedition was not as successful as the preceding year, where a less-capable GPR system was used in temperate (melting) ice cap conditions on the western plateau of Mount Ararat. However, they were able to determine the ice depth on the western plateau and scale the size of the Ark.

If the remains of Noah's Ark were in moving ice on Mount Ararat (there is only one legitimate glacier, the Black Glacier, though there are other moving ice flows like the so-called Parrot Glacier), the Ark would have been ground to bits. ArcImaging contends that until the entire mountain has been adequately "sub-surface" surveyed using the latest remote sensing technology, some people such as the alleged eyewitnesses contended that the Ararat ice cap contains the remains of Noah's Ark since about 90% of the supposed eyewitnesses claim that the boat was sticking out of the ice even though the explorers over the past 50 years did not see the same boat-like structure.