258 M. Rauraer's Contribution to the Biblical Geography of 



the mountain Noah's Hill, other Oriental nations the Mountain 

 of the Deluge. At its base, at Erivan, the spot is pointed out 

 where Noah is said to have planted the first vine. The Arme- 

 nians trace their origin to Haik, Noah's grandson, and from him 

 they call their land Haik. 



Having now given these descriptions of Ararat and its imme- 

 diate environsj— of this mountain from which the Earth, cleared 

 of its living inhabitants by the deluge, again derived its popula- 

 tion of men and animals, I shall now view its position in relation 

 to the whole of the old world. 



1. Ritter * calls Armenia, figuratively, an airy, humid, cold, 

 mountain isle. No point of the old continent is so much in the 

 interior of terra firma, and yet, with comparatively few excep- 

 tions, so surrounded by great masses of water. If we draw a 

 circle with a radius, extending from Ararat, a little to the south 

 of Erivan, to the south of Suez, the circumference of this circle 

 intersects the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, comprehends the 

 great lakes Van, Urmia, Aral, the Caspian, the Seas of Azof 

 and Marmora, the Euxine, and, lastly, intersects the eastern 

 part of the Mediterranean. Does it not appear as if Noah had 

 descended on Ararat as on a true mountain isle of antiquity, 

 from whose immense heights the waters descended in all direc- 

 tions. 



2. A great desert extends through the whole of the old world 

 from W. SW. to E. NE. -f. It commences on the west coast 

 of Africa, between Cape Verd and the Empire of Morocco, 

 extends, under the names of the deserts of Sahara and Lybia, 

 into Egypt, where the rich valley of the Nile forms a narrow belt 

 of cultivation in the broad expanse of sand ; beyond the Straits 

 of Suez and the Red Sea, it forms the Syrio- Arabic deserts, 

 which extend, with slight interruption, into Persia. From the 

 left bank of the river Sihon, it encircles in Lower Bucbaria, and 

 Persia, to Guzurat \ on the western coast of Hindostan, the 

 western extremity of the immense mountain chain of Central Asia, 

 the alpine sources of the Gihon, Indus, and Ganges. When we 



* Ritter, part ii. p. 710. 



f Compare Humboldt's Views of Nature, Part I. on steppes and deserts. 



:|: With slight interruption, we can trace, in succession, the deserts ot'Guz, 

 Gasnak, Deschtkowar, Naubendan, Kernian, Multan, Guzurat. Sec in Stic- 

 ler's Atlas, Richard's excellent Bfap of Upper Asia, No. 43. 



