Sacred mountains Examples of this would be the Hindu belief that Mount Kailas is the final resting place for the souls of the dead, as well as the large cemetery placed on Mount Koya-san. Sacred mountains can also provide an important piece of a culture's identity. For example, Messerli and Ives write, “The Armenian people regard Mount Ararat, a volcano in eastern Turkey believed to be the site of Noah's Ark in the Bible, to be a symbol of their natural and cultural identity”. As a result of the mountain's role as a part of a cultural identity, even people who do
Ararat, Armenia accommodate the workers. In 1930, the settlement was officially formed as a labour accommodation area, while the cement plant gave its first production in 1933. In 1935, the settlement was enlarged with the inclusion of the surrounding rural areas. In 1947, it was officially named Ararat after the nearby biblical Mountains of Ararat. With the establishment of several industrial plants, Ararat was developed as a major industrial centre of the Armenian SSR, to become an urban-type settlement. Due to its rapid growth and the gradual increase of the population, Ararat was given the status of a town in 1962. In