The anomaly is located on the northwest corner of the Western Plateau of Mount Ararat (approximately ) at about , some west of the summit, on the edge of what appears from the photographs to be a steep downward slope. It was first filmed during a U.S. Air Force aerial reconnaissance mission in 1949 — the Ararat massif sits on the former Turkish/Soviet border, and was thus an area of military interest — and was accordingly given a classification of secret as were subsequent photographs taken in 1956, 1973, 1976, 1990 and 1992, by aircraft and satellites.