Everyone knows the story of Noah’s Ark, but few know where the ark with all souls ended up docking? In the final chapter of the story, when birds fly in the air and human beings go to the wilderness, it is another beginning. Legend or history, in the rotation of beginning and end, in the alternation of happiness and sadness, time has become the best carrier to seal everything.
Legend has it that the Ark finally docked in today’s Armenia. Armenians, the main ethnic group in Armenia, are good at business but not good at war. More than 100 years ago, the massacre carried out by the Ottoman Turkish Empire almost caused it to be genocided. Known as the “sacred mountain” by Armenians, it is also the legend that Mount Aarat, not far from the place where Noah’s Ark stayed, is now mostly within the eastern border of Turkey.
In my memory, I can see it outside the hotel window in Yerevan, on the roof of the Great Staircase of Socialism in Yerevan, in the ancient Greek temple of Garni, and on the way to the Monastery of the Pit.
After people have no suffering, they still guard their homeland and their sacred mountain.
Monastery and the Unchanging Faith
Deep Pit Monastery is less than two hours’ drive from Yerevan, flanked by vast orchards, fields and farmhouses, and came to a screeching halt beneath the hill where Deep Pit Monastery is located. Standing on the hill where the monastery was located, there were thousands of hectares of fertile fields and orchards behind them. In the west, there was an empty wilderness meadow that stretched all the way to Mount Aarat. The Deep Pit Monastery was like a boundary pillar separating the two.
“The traces of Noah’s Ark are there,” the priest explained to several European tourists, pointing to the folds on the earth in the distance. I watched intently for a long time, but I didn’t see why, so I had to nod frequently with the tourists.
The transformation of Armenian national beliefs began during the reign of King Tiridades III, just like the anti-Buddhism movement in Tubo period. According to legend, at that time, Tiridades III in Armenia brutally suppressed Christianity to the point of madness, and the consequence of this madness was that he himself became crazy and unable to live a normal life. He was later cured by Pope Gregory, who had been taken to die in a dungeon thirteen years earlier because of the religious movement.
Thiridades III, grateful for his help, converted his faith and made Christianity the state religion. This year is 301 of the park, 79 years before the Roman Empire. The pit where Gregory had been imprisoned for thirteen years was located in Ardashat, a city with ancient Greek style, so it was also called Khor Virap Monastery. Most visitors here will go down the iron ladder to see the deep pit where the Pope is imprisoned. They either meditate and pray in it, or silently feel the scene at that time. As far as ordinary people are concerned, in such a closed space, let alone 13 years, even 13 days will die of depression.
Beautiful legends add color to the journey. The cable car to Tatef Church is the longest cable car in the world, with a running distance of 5,752 meters, the highest point of 320 meters and 36 kilometers per hour. The whole journey takes 12 minutes. On the left of the end of the cable car is Tatev Monastery, and on the right is the famous ghost bridge, where there are many small caves and hot springs.
In the twilight, I stood where the architect of Tatef Abbey was said to have jumped down, overlooking the multicolored valley beneath the cliff. Tatev Monastery was rated as a World Cultural Heritage as early as 1995. Legend has it that after the monastery was built, the architect stood on the edge of the canyon cliff and made the cross sign on his chest to pray, may God give wings to creatures, and then jumped into the abyss. In the fall, he grew wings and flew. “Tatev” in Armenian means “may God give me wings”.