Develi is a village in the Iravan uezd of the former Iravan governorate, later in the former Vedi (Ararat) district, and currently in the Ararat province. The provincial centre lies 16 km to the southeast of the town of Gamarli (Artashat), by the canal flowing from the Vedibasar River, and at a height of 818 m above sea level. It was marked in “The Iravan Province Review Book”, and on the five-verst map of the Caucasus. Until 1828 only Azerbaijanis had lived there. According to the Treaty of Turkmanchay, the Armenians, who were removed from the Iranian areas of Maku and Salmas in 1828–1829, were settled in Develi.

The village was inhabited by 28 Azerbaijanis and 633 Armenians in 1831, 207 Azerbaijanis and 1,760 Armenians in 1873, 263 Azerbaijanis and 1,975 Armenians in 1886 and 686 Azerbaijanis and 2,650 Armenians in 1897. In 1918–1919 the Azerbaijanis were massacred or driven out from their historical- ethnic territories by the Armenian armed units. In 1922 the village was inhabited by three Azerbaijanis along with Armenians. Later on, the Azerbaijanis were driven out from the village where only Armenians were left.

The toponym is an ethnotoponym coined on the basis of the ethnonym of “Develi”, one of the branches of the Gajars.

The village was renamed “Ararat” by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR dated 3 January 1935. According to the law “On the administrative-territorial division of the Republic of Armenia” dated 7 November 1995, it was integrated into the administrative area of the Sunik province.

Geographic coordinates: latitude: 39°49’ N., longitude: 44°42’ E.