OLDEST TOWN IN WORLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17270, 20 September 1919, Page 2 (Supplement)

OLDEST TOWN IN WORLD.

... WiJERE NOAH SETTLED. ._ TBS * CITY OF NAKHICHEVAN, The oldest town in ihe world, the city of Nakhichevan, at the foot of 1 Mount Ararat, in a remote section if Tr&na(riancaßiar—where, Armenian tradition tells mCNdifa settled and built a village when ho came forth from the Ark with his sons and his beasts and birds—has requested that the United States be its m&nd!<£ory under the League,of Nations. The plea came to the Armenian Committee fop Armenian and Syrian Relief, which baa established an orphanage in Nakhichevan, and was transmitted by that organisation to President Wilson. Jailer Koolis Khan, a Tartar chieftain and the Prime Minister of Nakhichevan, addressed his request for a mandatory to " the Imperial Representative, the Supreme President of the United States," and thanks " your supreme highness for the money, clothing, and grain given by the American relief workers.'" ■ The translation of Jaffer Koolis Khans letter gees on to say :—" Urom the depths of our heart we applaud the advance and increase of glory of the American Republic and her' manifest faithfulness and sincerity in the pathway of humanity's progress. From Almighty God we pray long Hfe to your Supreme Excellency. We are confident that in the future America, the servant of humanity, will extend to our State a guiding hand to help us." Nakhichevan is a principality of Russian Armenia, in the government of Erivan, and 85 miles south-east of the town o.' Irevan. It lies at the foot of this mountain from which Noah sent forth the dove to see if the rains had abated, and its early history is shrouded in mystery. Ptolemy refers to it as Naxuana. and various historians have referred to it as the oldest town in the world. It has been rebuilt again and again, and is now full of ha'i-obhterated evidences of former prosperity. The Persians razed the town m the fourth - century, but it bad recovered its prosperity by the end of the tenth ceatury, when it was said to have had a population of 40,000, and to have been an important trade centre for commerce with Persia and Turkey. In 1064 the town was captured by Alp Arslan, the Sultan of the Seljuk Turks, and in the thirteenth century it fell a victim to the Mongol hordes of Genghis " Khan. Prom that period it declined in importance and Goffered greatly in the various wars between the Persians, Armenians, and Turku. It became a part of the Russian Empire, by the peace of Turkmanchai, in 1828, bail lias always been a more or loss self-governing principality. The tradition that the town was settled by Noah goes back as far as Armenian and Persian tradition can be traced. There is a great mound of earth in the centre of the town, which pilgrims still visit as* Noah's grave .and the spot where he offered sacrifices to God after coming safely out of the Ark. The present houses of the town are mostly quarried from undent ruins, and there are many remains of ancient Armenian and Persian palaces. Of the palace of the princes of Azerbaijan there remains a gateway with a Persian, inscription flanked ny two brick towers, and at a little distance from the gateway is the Tower of the Khans,' richly decorated and dating' from the twelfth' century. There are also the ruins of a large mosqw. The town is on the ligh road to Tabriz srod Teheran, .- and has a considerable transit traio. Its population now is between 8000 and 10.000, mostly Tartars and Armenians, who carry on gardening. make vine and produce salt, silk, and millstones.