Case file · Sacred site
Parrot and Abovian climb Ararat
On 9 October 1829 the German naturalist Friedrich Parrot and the Armenian deacon Khachatur Abovian made the first recorded ascent of Mount Ararat from the Russian side, against the belief of the Armenian Church that the summit was holy and unreachable.
1829 CE · 39.70, 44.30 · status: official
The account
Monks of Etchmiadzin and of the Saint Hakob monastery at Akhuri held that God barred humans from the Ark's resting place, and many doubted Parrot's claim. Abovian, who carried a block of ice down, became the founder of modern Armenian literature. The 1840 earthquake destroyed Akhuri and the monastery.