The Search For Noah's Ark Presentation


	The location of the reliefs up some 6-9 m (18-27 ft) on a cliff shows the importance of the one entombed there and the difficulty that the sculptor must have had in creating it. Reliefs are located to the left, right and above the entrance to the rock chamber tomb. The relief to the right is the dominant figure, the first in the procession, and is probably the one whose body was inside the tomb. He appears to be a local or provincial king. The king is wearing a striated or braided helmet/headdress, a garment like a robe or dress, a ribbon across the top of his shoes near the ankle, and carries a staff extending down to his feet. With his striated helmet, the king happens to resemble some of the Hittite reliefs from Alacahöyük that are located in the Anatolian Museum of Ankara or Median reliefs at the Achaemenid capital of Persepolis. Urartian relief headdresses traditionally have a more rectangular or boxy look, such as those at Van Museum. This king relief may have been simply an outlying regional variant from the Urartean reliefs that are known.
	The figure to the left, possibly a priest or the king’s mate, is holding up a goat or mythological animal in the center relief to the god as a sacrifice for the king. The reliefs may be Urartean because there are other Urartean remains found in the region including cemeteries and ceramics, even close by at the bottom of the hill in the area named Sarigül.