We had a long drive from Batman to Van so broke it up a bit. Our first stop in the town of Bitlis (rather like a Northern England mill-town because of the dark stone, says our guidebook) looking for coffee proved futile, though we were given free tea in the only place that looked as if women were allowed:
Nikhil took the opportunity to wash his feet in what he thought was warm water – but it wasn’t:
Our next stop was a seventh-century Armenian church (St Anania) in the tiny village of Pors: it is now used as a barn. We were looking for the fabulous Armenian khatchkars – obsessively detailed crosses that the Armenians used both as celebratory offerings and as grave markers.
We found the barn and a few of the khatchkars:
Two small boys demanded that I take photos of them and then send them via Bluetooth to their phone. So much for village life.
This is probably the moment for some historical information. The Armenians have been in this area since the Urartian empire collapsed in around 600 BCE. (Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of the Urartians – that’s the topic of the next blog!) They gradually developed their own identity with the advent of Christianity which they adopted as a nation (the first to do so) in the third century. The Armenian alphabet was invented in 404 and the identity further established when the Armenian Apostolic Church refused to accept the Byzantine Council of Chalcedon’s ruling about Christ as human and divine. Instead they retained their Monophysitic beliefs that Christ was divine. (See earlier blog for the same issue with the Syrian church).
The Ottomans took control of Armenia in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries which benefited the Armenians but problems arose when the Ottoman Empire declined and some Armenians developed nationalist aspirations (egged on by the Russians who wanted to fragement the Ottoman Empire). In April 1915 and for the following ten months, Armenian men were shot while women and children were forced to march hundreds of kilometres towards concentration camps in the Mesopotamian desert. The number is controversial but it’s assumed that nearly a million people died.
So – history over and back to the blog. We arrived at Lake Van which is virtually an inland sea at 1,750 metres. It occupies a lowland basin that was dammed by lava flowing from Nemrut Dagi, a nearby volcano (another mountain with the same name as the one with the big heads). Only two species of fish inhabit the highly alkaline waters – pearl mullet and stone loach. Snow-covered mountains surround the lake:
We took a boat over to the tiny island of Akdamar, home to a tenth-century Armenian Church of the Holy Cross.
The church is tiny but what makes it so special are the relief carvings running around the exterior:
We found (according to the sign) the three young Jews being burnt and Daniel with lions licking his feet particularly extraordinary:
We thought this saint and his horse charming too, although he does appear to be killing someone:
Inside, the partially restored frescoes were stupendous as well including the slaughter of the innocents, the shroud of Jesus and many others:
Our wonderful trip was completed with a visit to the cafe for excellent Turkish coffee – the cup’s significance will become clear in a future blog – and a sighting of a tortoise:
Those churches look amazing. I’ve given up hope of coffee in Azerbaijan. They are tea obsessed, even drinking tea through a mouthful of fruit compote. I’m being serious. But my top tip for future reference is to always carry coffee bags.
The church was indeed fabulous and we were there in late afternoon so the light was particularly lovely. Sorry to hear about the absence of coffee ( tea the big thing here too though Turkish coffee is available sometimes), I’m guessing it doesn’t change your view of pistachio tea however..
Pistachio tea may be fine. I didn’t like the look of what was posted as pistachio coffee. The only good thing about drinking tea through a mouthful of jam is that you can’t taste the tea.
Beautiful churches, particularly the relief carvings.
The carvings were really lovely – and look, here are the Jews!
Fantastic carvings and frescoes – particularly like Daniel having is feet licked by the lions. Speaking of which hope Nikhil’s feet have survived a dip in the substance which he thought was water but wasn’t. I hesitate to ask what it turned out to be but could hazard a guess from its colour….
Nikhil’s feet are fine as far as we know – I think he was hoping it was a warm or even hot spring. There was an old gentleman bathing his foot in a noticeably bubbly bit of the pool which I suspect was the warm bit. I too loved those lions licking Daniel’s feet!
Thanks for the history! It’s quite thrilling to see thru your photos the amazing carvings and frescoes.
The carvings and frescos in and on that particular church were really outstanding.