Buyuk Agrı (Greater Ararat)

Mount Ararat is a dormant compound volcano in eastern Turkey. Mount Ararat is Turkey's highest point; it is located twenty miles south of Armenia and ten miles north of Azerbaijan and Iran. The mountain is 5,137 m above sea level and has two volcanic cones: Greater Ararat (5,137 m) and Little Ararat (3,896 m). Due to global warming, the snow on top of the mountain has significantly decreased, and it is now estimated to cover only 3.1 square miles, a 29 percent decrease in the last 35 years.

According to the Bible, Noah's ark landed in the Ararat Mountains. However, most scholars believe that Ararat referred to Armenia as a whole, rather than just the mountain. The peak of the mountain was under Persian control until 1828 when the Turmenchay Treaty was signed following a Russo-Persian war. Little Ararat became Turkey's, Russia's, and Persia's shared border. Another boundary change, the Tehran Convention, in 1932, favored Turkey because the mountain was now under her control. The Iran-Turkey border had now extended east of lower Ararat.

To this day, some Armenians claim a portion of this massive mountain. Armenians protested against the Turkish Prime Minister's visit to the country in November 2010. The Armenian government, on the other hand, has never made an official claim to the Turkish government regarding the mountain.

Height: 5,137 m

Location: Iğdır and Ağrı provinces, Turkey