About 35 kilometres north of Dogubeyazit, on the flanks of Mount Ararat near the village of Aralık, lies a large impact crater formed by a meteorite strike estimated to have occurred around 3,000 years ago. The crater is roughly 35 metres in diameter and up to 5 metres deep. It is one of the best-preserved young impact craters in the world and has been studied by astronomers and geologists since the 1980s.
The site is off the main road and requires a guide or at minimum directions from locals in Dogubeyazit. The drive across the Ararat plain to reach it passes through some of the most open landscape in Turkey — flat grasslands running to the mountain's lower slopes, with occasional Kurdish nomad camps in summer. The crater itself is modest in scale but the setting, against the backdrop of Ararat, is striking.