Ararat

Mt Ararat (Arği Daği) + meteor crater and "Noah's Ark" - darkometer rating : 2 - (but weirdness factor partly up to 10) Mt Ararat is considered by Armenia to be their very own holy mountain – but today it's actually on the territory of Turkey (much to the annoyance of the Armenians). There's more holy-or-not-holy controversy: according to the Bible, Noah's Ark landed on Mt Ararat – and believers are adamant that they have indeed found traces of it here. Today there's even a visitor centre at the site. The exhibition inside tries hard to convince visitors through all manner of (pseudo-)scientific reasoning and "evidence", but less faith-guided people will find it all rather weird and bizarre. Right on the border between Turkey and Iran, there's another oddity: a huge hole in the ground which was (allegedly) created when a meteor hit in 1892. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: Mt Ararat ("Ağri Daği" in Turkish) is modern Turkey 's highest mountain, at nearly 17,000 feet (5137 metres) it is also its only permanently snow-covered peak (as long as climate change doesn't put an end to that). It is a giant. Actually a dormant volcano, rising from the plain around it some 13,000 feet (almost 4000 m) … and it's also "big" in a biblical, archeological, natural-historical as well as a political sense. Politically, the mountain is a symbol of long-standing conflict. Not only because of the fact that Armenians claim the mountain as historically part their homeland. The two countries are at loggerheads anyway, especially because of the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Turks (which in Turkey is routinely denied) – see Armenian genocide monument .