From the river Halys in Asia Minor to Lake Urumiyeh, east of Armenia, there was a multitude of tribes, most of whom seem to have belonged to the same race and to have spoken dialects of the same language.

The Hittites of Cappadocia and the ranges of the Taurus have already been described.

East of them came the Meshech and Tubal of the Bible as well as the kingdom of Comagene, of which we often hear in the Assyrian texts.

But of all these northern populations the most important--at all events in the later Old Testament age--were the inhabitants of a country called Biainas, but to which its neighbours gave the name of Ararat.

Ararat corresponded to southern Armenia, Biainas being the modern Van, and the Mount Ararat of modern geography lying considerably to the north of it.