All  

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ Mobile

Seven Mountains to Aratta: Searching for Noah’s Ark in Iran

Authors: 
ISBN-10: 
1329984137

Inspired by the many expeditions before him, researcher and explorer, B.J. Corbin spent the better part of the last three decades in search of the resting place of the Biblical Noah’s Ark, as the waters receded from the Great Deluge.

Since the decipherment of the Mesopotamian languages over a century ago, scholars have been able to draw many parallels between both the events of the Bible and the stories of Sumero-Babylonian mythologies. Corbin relies on these exact variations of the same narrative alongside local legends and lore to pinpoint a potential location, not in the mountains of Ararat of modern day Turkey but instead somewhere in the Zagros mountain ranges of Iran. In ancient times, Sumerian literature spoke of an Aratta, to the East.

Having participated in multiple expeditions to Turkey’s Ararat, in the 1980’s and again, in the 1990’s, Corbin knew, deep down, that this couldn’t have been the mountain to which the Ark eventually ended its journey. His initial clues came in the form of the Table of Nations found not in Chapter 10 of the Book of Genesis, but instead in Chapter 8 of the Book of Jubilees (often referred to as the Little Genesis). One of Japhet’s sons, Madai, declined his apportioned land to the North and stayed behind near the mountain of Noah. Madai would be the forefather of Medes (modern day Iran). Something just didn’t add up. If Madai dwelled near the mountain of Noah, then the mountain of Noah must be someplace in the East and not North.

This marked the beginning of Corbin’s journey and what follows are additional clues and local legends of the gravesites of the Biblical Patriarchs. The publication is filled with beautiful photographs, although I must admit, I do wish that they were in color. I can only imagine how extraordinarily beautiful they would be. I also would have preferred the author to introduce the reader to the Biblical and Mesopotamian stories early on in his publication rather than later. It would have made his constant references to those stories a bit easier to interpret.

That aside, I would not let my above comments discourage you from picking up a copy of Corbin’s research. While not conclusive, the author does do an excellent job of providing a good amount of evidence for Aratta being the Ark’s final resting place.

By Petros Koutoupis