A replica of Noah¹s Ark is to be built on top of Mount Ararat in Turkey to attract tourists. It will house a museum, restaurants, a conference hall and shops to attract tourists back to the region that for years suffered the ravages of war.

The 5,000-metre-high Mount Ararat stands on the border between Turkey and Armenia. Tourism Minister Mustafa Tasar told Turkish newspaper Milliyet a five-mile-long cable car run will take visitors from the foot of the mountain to the summit.

Mount Ararat has attracted considerable attention form archaeologists in the last decade who have been searching remnants of the "real" Noah¹s Ark. So far, they have found no clues that Noah and his animals did land on the mountain.

Authorities in the region have made much efforts to attract tourists back to the area since the end of the war between the Workers Party of Kurdistan (PKK) and the Turkish army.