Ararat's travertine deposit was founded in 1927, though this stone had been used long ago, too — there are monuments that prove that in the III-rd century B.C. it was already in use.
In 1929 Moscow college of geological researches investigated this deposit and found out that the southeastern slopes of mountain Salakit had huge stocks of travertine of about 38,4 million tons (15,4 million cub/m), so it's one of the largest deposits in the world.
