[5][14] Aragats was mentioned by the early medieval historian Movses Khorenatsi, who in his History of Armenia claims that the mountain is named after Aramaneak [hy], the son of Hayk, the legendary patriarch of the Armenian people.

Aramaneak called his possessions "the foot of Aragats" (Old Armenian: ոտն Արագածոյ, romanized: otn Aragatsoy or Արագածոտն, Aragatsotn).

[17] A relatively modern name for the mountain is Alagöz (Russian: Алагёз), sometimes spelled Alagheuz,[18][19] which literally means "variegated eye"[20] in Turkish and Azerbaijani.

[30][31] It has four summits, which are named according to their relative geographic position:[5] Mount Aragats has a topographic prominence of 2,143 meters, more than some higher mountains, such as Dykh-Tau (5,205 m high) in the Russian part of Great Caucasus Range.

Situated 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of the Armenian capital Yerevan, Aragats is a large volcano with numerous fissure vents and adventive cones.

The summit crater is cut by a 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) long line of cones which generated possibly Holocene-age lahars and lava flow.

[33] Traces of prehistorical glaciation also exist including thick moraines in the summit area at an altitude of 2,600–3,000 m.[34] The volcano was constructed in four different phases.

The second phase (0.97–0.89 Ma, by K–Ar) involved the main vent, and subsidiary structures and was basaltic and andesitic in composition with ignimbrites and pyroclastic, with tuffs and lava flows emanating from satellite centers.

The fourth stage (0.56–0.45 Ma) involved mafic lava flows from parasitic vents in the southern parts of the volcano.

[37] Numerous engravings have been made around the volcano, including rock paintings portraying animals and human-like figures in the Kasagh River valley possibly dating to the early Holocene, and in Aghavnatun on the southern side of the volcano including petroglyphs showing animals that were possibly created in the 4th to 1st millennia BCE.

[38] According to an ancient Armenian legend, Aragats and Mount Ararat were loving sisters who parted after a quarrel and separated permanently.

[39] Another legend tells that Gregory the Illuminator, who converted Armenia to Christianity in the early 4th century, "used to pray on the peak of the mountain.

The quarter million participants, among them then-President Robert Kocharyan and Defense Minister Serzh Sargsyan, formed a 163-kilometre (101 mi) ring around the mountain after a blessing from Catholicos Karekin II.

[39] The early medieval fortress of Amberd and the nearby 11th-century Vahramashen Church are located on the slopes of Aragats, at an altitude of 2,300 m (7,500 ft).

[50] The Aragats Cosmic Ray Research Station is a cosmic-ray observatory near Lake Kari, at around 3,200 m (10,500 ft) above sea level.