We left Lake Van yesterday morning and headed up into the mountains to reach Dogubayzit as close to the Iranian border as you can imagine:
Mount Ararat suddenly appeared with its snowy cap and lava foothills, and stayed with us on and off until we drove towards the Armenian border on our way to Kars.
We tried to get closer to the mountain but were stopped by a very polite army officer who told us we couldn’t go any further as it would be dangerous, but he let us take photographs, making sure we didn’t include the nearby tank and anything military.
The mountain was sacred to the Armenians and their monks would not allow anyone to climb it until it was finally conquered by Dr Parrot (!), a German academic in 1829. The mountain is in a sensitive military zone (hence being stopped) because it borders the Armenian and Iranian frontiers and, although it can be climbed, permits are needed together with proper equipment.
It’s thought to have been the site of Noah’s Ark (astronaut James Irwin and others have looked and looked). Locals insist that an oval mound of earth spotted in 1959 by a Turkish air-force pilot on a routine flight is the ‘Ark’ so we had to go and visit!
This is the ‘ark’:
The wall up on the hill is the border with Iran!
Whether or not this was the ark, it didn’t matter. The scenery was truly wonderful as I have tried to show in this video:
As if that weren’t enough, we went to visit a marvellous palace this morning: the Ishak Pasa Sarayi, once a Urartian fortress (regular readers will know about the Urartians). The palace was built by a local Ottoman chieftan, begun in 1685 and finished in 1784. Later it was used by the Turkish army as a barracks and then by the Russians during subsequent periods of invasion.
Here are some of the beautiful features of the palace, whose golden doors were taken by the Russians and are now in the Hermitage Museum!
How stunning, and how Sue does get everywhere! I expect the restrictions meant that you couldn’t get down to the ark? A good landmark for the narrative though. Video very calming
Hello, anonymous! Thank you for following our travels. Are you someone that either M or I know? Just asking?
It’s me. Hilary. I seem to come through incognito depending on which gadget I use 😀
Ah yes, the same thing happens to another friend if she makes a comment using her phone. We did have a couple of slightly strange anonymous comments a few posts ago.
Marvellous! I saw around Mount Ararat and the ark in 1987. You give me memories to revive. So gorgeous.
It’s such an amazing landscape – huge and empty. Just waiting for that dove to return. Really, who cares what happened to the raven….
Landscape is like a green desert… beautiful!
It is stunning – empty, green, huge flocks of sheep and, now we’re in dairy country, cows – extraordinary place.
Well even more stunning photographs of a snow-capped mountain – Sue’s phone does take fantastic pics…..
The carving at Ishak Pasa is so difficult to place stylistically and till so crisp – probably something to do with dry atmosphere.
Yes, I continue to take credit for my phone though M is the photographer. The carving at the palace was probably mostly nineteenth century so definitely still crisp ( when you travel in this region, anything that’s not late Bronze Age is more or less contemporary). Such a beautiful palace, though, perched on rock overlooking the valley …
I didn’t comment immediately as I was so blown away by the landscape and Ishak Pasa. Still can’t think of anything useful to say! Just wonderful.
You must come here! You and C would love it! ( it also has coffee)..
Fascinating trip you are having.
It really is though impossible to keep up with the huge shifts in rulers, battles and empires from the Bronze Age on….
I have been reading all your posts and am loving discovering Turkey through you. Looks like a marvelous trip and even good weather (and finally some red wine the other night…..). Enjoy every moment! Jens xx
Lovely to hear from you, Jens! Yes, this is a fabulous trip – and more wine tonight unexpectedly in conservative Erzurum!