The story of Mount Ararat

In Kurdish its name, Çiyayê Agirî, means "Fiery Mountain", and its traditional Persian name, Kūh-e Nūḥ, means "Noah's Mountain". At 5,137 metres, Mount Ağrı is Turkey's highest mountain, rising at the country's eastern edge, 16 kilometres west of Iran and 32 kilometres south of Armenia. The world mostly knows it as Ararat, a Greek variant of the Hebrew word for the Urartians, yet no local people ever used that name; the traditional Armenian name is Masis.

Look up at its two summits: the 5,137-metre Atatürk Summit, or Great Ağrı, and the 3,898-metre İnönü Summit, or Little Ağrı. The volcano is built of basalt up to 4000 metres and andesite lavas above. It is the only mountain in Turkey with a 10 km² ice cap, the country's largest glacier, and its peak stays snow-covered in all four seasons.

Eleven glacier tongues hang from the ice; the biggest lies in the Cehennemdere Valley.