3 January] 1841)[1] was a Baltic German naturalist, explorer, and mountaineer, who lived and worked in Tartu, Estonia in what was then the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire.

[2] A pioneer of Russian and Estonian scientific mountaineering, Parrot is best known for leading the first expedition to the summit of Mount Ararat in recorded history.

[6] He studied medicine and natural science at Dorpat and, in 1811, undertook an expedition to the Crimea and the Caucasus with Moritz von Engelhardt.

[8] With a team of science and medical students, Parrot left Dorpat in April 1829 and traveled south to Russian Transcaucasia and Armenia to climb Ararat.

An outbreak of plague in Russian Armenia and the vicinity of Erivan (Yerevan) delayed the expedition and the team visited the eastern Georgian province of Kakheti until it subsided.

[11] They then traveled from Tiflis to Etchmaidzin, where Parrot met Khachatur Abovian, the future Armenian writer and national public figure.

[12] Accompanied by Abovian, Parrot and his team crossed the Arax River into the district of Surmali and headed to the Armenian village of Akhuri (modern Yenidoğan) situated on the northern slope of Ararat 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) above sea level.

[18] In 1837, Parrot went to Tornio in the northern part of the Grand Duchy of Finland to observe oscillations of a pendulum and terrestrial magnetism.