Turkey's easternmost and largest volcano, Ağrı is located close to the borders with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran, and is thus known by several names. Ararat is the common name outside of Turkey. Ağrı has two main volcanic cones: Greater Ararat (~5,137m, westernmost) and Lesser Ararat (~3,896m, eastern cone). With such elevation, Ağrı is home to a permanent, though rapidly receding ice cap and large amounts of snow in the winter.

Extensive flank eruptions along N-S trending fissures followed the construction of the two main cones. Cinder cones and dacitic-rhyolitic lava domes formed around Greater Ararat, whilst pyroclastic cones and domes formed on the west flank of the Lesser Ararat.

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Three Holocene eruptions are recorded, and another two uncertain. Pyroclastic flow deposits are found to overlie early Bronze Age artifacts, demonstrating a deadly Bronze Age eruption. Most recently, a devastating eruption, earthquake and landslide occurred at the volcano in 1840.

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