"a sense of possession of Ararat in the sense of symbolic cultural property." There is historical and modern mountain worship around it among Armenians. Ararat is known as the "holy mountain" of the Armenian people. It was principal to the pre-Christian Armenian mythology, where it was the home of the gods. With the rise of Christianity, the mythology associated with pagan worship of the mountain was lost. In the early 20th century, the Italian traveler Luigi Villari wrote, "Almost the whole history of the Armenian people centres round Mount Ararat." Ararat was the geographical center of ancient Armenian kingdoms. One scholar defined the historic Greater Armenia (Armenia Major) as "the area about 200 miles [320 km] in every direction from Mount Ararat." In 19th-century era of romantic nationalism, when an Armenian state did not exist, Mount Ararat symbolized the historical Armenian nation-state. In 1861 Armenian poet Mikael Nalbandian, witnessing the Italian unification, wrote to Harutiun Svadjian in a letter from Naples: "Etna and Vesuvius are still smoking; is there no fire left in the old volcano of Ararat?" Anglican priest and historian Theodore Edward Dowling wrote in 1910 that Mount Ararat and Etchmiadzin are the "two great objects of Armenian veneration." He noted that the "noble snowy mountain takes the place, in the estimation of the Armenians, that Mount Sinai and the traditional Mount Zion do among the adherents of other Eastern Christians." While historian Jon Smele called Mt. Ararat and the medieval capital of Ani the "most cherished symbols of Armenian identity." Myth of origin The Genesis flood narrative was linked to the Armenian myth of origin by the early medieval historian Movses Khorenatsi. In his History of Armenia, he wrote that Noah and his family first settled in Armenia and later moved to Babylon. Hayk, a descendant of Japheth, a son of Noah, revolted against Bel (the biblical Nimrod) and returned to the area around Mount Ararat, where he established the roots of the Armenian nation. He is thus considered the legendary founding father and the name giver of the Armenian people. According to Razmik Panossian, this legend "makes Armenia the cradle of all civilisation since Noah's Ark landed on the 'Armenian' mountain of Ararat. […] it connects Armenians to the biblical narrative of human development. […] it makes Mount Ararat the national symbol of all Armenians, and the territory around it the Armenian homeland from time immemorial."