International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B5. Istanbul 2004
of Mount Ararat and Mount Judi where, although not
found, Noah's Ark is said to have settled as the
biblical flood receded, according to the Hebrew Torah
and the Arabic Qur'an, respectively. The Qur'an, in
Chapter Eleven, Verse 44, states “The Ark rested on
Judi plateau". The Torah, in Genesis 8:4, states "the
Ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat". While
not presuming to think we can find the Ark, indeed a
quixotic pursuit ending in failure with every attempt,
the triangulation of the sacred writ locations has
proven effective in unexpected ways. Mount Judi, a
part of the Ararat Mountain mass and plateau,
straddles an international site the Turkish sector of
which has been recently studied. In the summer of
1995, Turkish experts identified an anomaly of
unusual concentrations of iron oxide fitting in pattern
distribution the Biblical description of the Ark.
Perhaps iron oxide is all that is left of the Ark but
nevertheless, remote sensing imagery graphically
reproduced can provide a presentation of these and
other findings for our proposed atlas.
2.3 The City of Pillars
But it was the 1991 synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
related discovery of Iram/Ubar in Oman that increased
the likelihood of the greater discoverability of other
arcane and salient archaeological, historical,
cartographic, toponymic, antiquitous and
geomorphologic indicators cited in the Qur'an. The
Iram City of Pillars cited in the Qur'an, Chapter 89,
Verses 1 and 14 (in Arabic referred to as Iram Dhat al-
Imad), which came to be known as Ubar in the
Arabian Nights literature, was detected with aerial
remote sensing technology where and when trails were
imaged leading to no discernable human settlement.
On-ground remote sensing technologies were then
plied resulting in the successful discovery of the urban
centre of Iram which sunk into limestone caverns that
had, over time, been drained of water by the residents
of Iram. Iram and the caverns were slowly covered in
sand within four centuries of the subsequent revelation
of the Qur'an. This discovery put remote sensing (RS)
in a new light with a new focus for sacred writ
geography discernment.
2.4 Turkey Prospects
An unprecedented, ambitious, perhaps quixotic project
with profound implications using RS right here in
Turkey would involve triangulating the likely hidden
locations where the purging of sacred writ effects of
Emperors Diocletian and Constantine could be
identified. Paul, in 2-Timothy 4:13 directs his
disciples to “bring the scrolls, especially the
parchments" to him in another part of Turkey, from
Troas. As it happens, Troas is not so far from the
traditional seats of Diocletian and Constantine at
Nicea, Izmit and Iznik. Granted, more than 200 years
separate Paul from these Emperors, but the mere
chance of locating “the scrolls, especially the
parchments” Paul referred to, is a chance worth
taking, particularly when those scrolls and parchments
are at best certainly and at least plausibly what the
Qur’an refers to as the Injil in Chapter Five, Verses
49-51. As one of the famous translators and
commentators of the Qur’an put it, “The Injil spoken
of by the Qur’an is not the New Testament. It is not
the four Gospels now received as canonical. It is the
single Gospel which was revealed to Jesus and which
he taught” (page 287, A.Y. Ali, published by Kamal
Muslim Trust-Publications of Presidency of Islamic
Courts and Affairs, State of Qatar, 1946). The
likelihood of this and related sacred writs being
ensconced in the Turkish areas of Biblical Ephesus,
Troas, Bithynia, Nicea, Iznik and Izmit, is more than
plausible, as it was from this general region that
Emperor Diocletian put out the order to destroy all
Christian writs, and Emperor Constantine more
selectively put out the order to purge all Christian
writs which did not conform to his model of empire,
per the Council of Nicea and thus the Nicean Creed.
Finding the Injil or related writs might be like finding
a needle in a haystack, but not if this sacred writ atlas
project is realized up to our expectations when that
haystack would then be baled up, one bale at a time,
leaving just such a needle there for the discerning
investigator’s taking. The number of other sacred writ
geographical indicators this project would endeavor to
discern with RS is such that even if Paul’s “scrolls,
especially the parchments" cannot be found, the atlas
would still reach completion without any loss and with
much knowledge gained.
3.0 TERRITORY OF STUDY
Iram/Ubar and Ephesus-Istanbul mark our SE and NW
mapping corners respectively, while the eastern coast
of the Red Sea and the eastern coast of the
Mediterranean Sea mark our western boundary.
Historical Saba, a.k.a. Shabwah and Sheba of the
Qur'an and the Bible, mark our southwestern corner.
Ararat-Judi marks our northeastern corner.
Occasional incursions into historical Biblical Cyrene
of Libya, into Egypt, Rome and Persia would
complete the sacred writ territory we would
encompass in this project. A particularly important
incursion would include the area of Arcadia in Greece.
Included in our sacred writ mapping project are the
trade, migration and hajj (pilgrimage) caravan sarai
(hospitable camping) trails directly related to
Jerusalem, Mecca, and Bostra (of Syria, not Basra of
Iraq). The caravan-vectored events of history
occurring at Bostra’s Jabal Harun (Mount Harun) in
582 of the Current Era had a primary impact on the
unfolding of Islam and its relationship to Christianity.
It was to here where the Council of Ephesus of ancient
Turkey banished the then new order of Christian
Nestorians which was, generations later, to produce a
monk named Bahaira who bore a sacred writ titled the
Tabdil (both Bahaira and Tabdil are Aramaic terms).
This monk, with his sacred writ that is said to have
been passed down over the decades and generations,
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