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According to the Epic of Gilgamesh, which we discussed earlier, the ark came to rest on
Mount Nisir: "I looked for land in vain, but fourteen leagues distant there appeared a mountain, and
there the boat grounded; on the mountain of Nisir the boat held fast, she held fast and did not
budge." Ancient records place this mountain among the Zagros Mountains northeast of the Mesopo-
tamian plain. The annals of King Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.) link it with the land just south of
the Little Zab River.

Interestingly, the Koran agrees with the Epic of Gilgamesh when it says "...and the ark
rested on the mountain Al Judi" (Hud 11:46). In Arabic "Nisir" is called Judi, and a footnote in the
Koran mentions that this particular mountain is one the divides the southern part of Armenia from
Mesopotamia in the area that was inhabited by the Kurds.

If we go back to the passage from Josephus that we looked at earlier, we find further proof
that the ark grounded on a mountain or hill just north of the Mesopotamian plain. Notice!

Now the sons of Noah were three...these first of all DESCENDED FROM THE MOUNTAINS [OR
HILLS] INTO THE PLAINS, and fixed their habitation there; and persuaded others who were greatly afraid
of the lower grounds on account of the flood, and so were very loth to come down from the higher places,
to venture to follow their examples. NOW THE PLAIN IN WHICH THEY FIRST DWELT WAS CALLED
SHINAR (Antiquities of the Jews, I, 4:1).

This passage plainly states that Noah's sons came down from the mountains into the plains,
indicating that the plains were ADJACENT to the mountains. Furthermore, the passage says that
the name of the plain they first came down to and dwelt in was called SHINAR. Where was Shi-
nar? Let Smith's Bible Dictionary answer:

Shinar (country of two rivers), the ancient name of the great alluvial tract through which the Tigris and Eu-
phrates pass before reaching the sea -- the tract known in later times as Chaldea or Babylonia...It may be
suspected that Shinar was the name by which the Hebrews originally knew the lower Mesopotamian coun-
try where they so long dwelt...(p. 622).

This points, once again, to the Zagros Mountains just northeast of the Mesopotamian plain
once known as Shinar.

While all of these statements do not totally agree with each other, the bulk of the informa-
tion would favor a location within the foothills and mountains that border the Mesopotamian plain
in the country now known as Iraq -- not far to the north in Turkey where Mt. Ararat is located.

It is a point of fact that the site of Mt. Ararat as the resting place for the ark was not even
thought of until the fourth-century A.D. -- more than 2,000 years AFTER the Flood! This was the
LAST, not the earliest location. When Christianity came to Armenia, along with the Genesis ac-
count of Noah's ark, it naturally developed that Mount Ararat would be the logical place for the ark
to be found since Armenia was formerly known as the COUNTRY of Ararat. Falsely assuming the
Flood covered every mountain in the world, the Armenians picked Mt. Ararat as the preferred
resting place since it is the highest elevation in their country.

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