Aug 00 - Yakutiye Medresesi portal and minaret (1310, Ilkhanate), Erzurum

This, the Yakutiye Medresesi, an Ilkhanate masterpiece, was built in 1310 by local Mongol emir Cemaleddin Hoca Yakut on behalf of Gazan Khan and Bolugan Hatun. Its portal and one remaining minaret were designed in the Selcuk style and "show marked Persian influence." (Bradt) See the turquoise tiling on the minaret in this shot. The central dome in the ceiling has impressive muqarnas work. 4 eivans with students' cells /b/ them are arranged @ an inner courtyard. It's on the tentative list for Unesco designation (see below). It houses the obligatory local (and generally dry) 'Turkish and Islamic Arts and Ethnography museum', "one of Eastern Turkey's better museums". (LP) A mock-up of the interior of an Ottoman house, carpets, kilims, copperwork, weapons, womens' clothes, dervish accoutrements, Seljuk ceramics, "exhibits relating to the black amber jewellery trade", etc. are on show, per the LP. I spent at least a few hours in here. www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0rB0DCEXL0

 

- Impressive Erzurum (Air-zooroom) was more similar to Sivas (and to Tokat but less so) than any place that I would tour further east, but it was the most exotic of those 3, a showcase of some wonderful Saltuqid, Selcuk and Ilkhanate buildings, in particular two grand, well-preserved medreses, jewels of medieval architecture, and some unusual kümbets incl. that of the founder of the Saltuqid dynasty. It and at least one mosque are 12th cent. Saltuqid, among the oldest Islamic bldg.s I'd seen in Turkey to that point. (The city has its share of concrete apt. blocks too.) I enjoyed Erzurum and found it to be restful, untouristy, and atmospheric. I wonder if my impression that it was exotic was a result in part of the relative social conservatism and piety of the locals, with more head-scarves, chadors and prayer-beads on show than I'd yet seen that trip. It also sits at nearly 2,000 m.s above sea level (Turkey's loftiest provincial capital) on an almost treeless plain, set in a great bowl surrounded by distant mountains. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PewFgGXCR5Y

 

- In the early 1st mill., 'Erzurum [was known by] the Armenian name Karin. During the reigns of the Artaxiad and Arsacid kings of Armenia, it served as capital of the canton of Karin in the province Bardzr Hayk (Upper Armenia). Following the partition of Armenia in 387, the city passed into Roman control, was fortified and renamed Theodosiopolis after Emperor Theodosius I, became the chief military stronghold along the eastern border of the empire and was fiercely contested in wars between the Byzantines and Persians. Anastasius I and Justinian I both refortified the city.

- Conquered by Umayyad general Abdallah ibn Abd al-Malik in 700/701, it became the capital of the emirate of Ḳālīḳalā and was used as a base for raids into Byzantine territory. Notwithstanding that it was only an island of Arab power in Armenian territory, the city was generally a reliable client of the Caliph's governors. With the decline of the Caliphate and the resurgence of Byzantium, local Armenian leaders preferred the government of the city by relatively impotent Muslim emirs than by Byzantine emperors. In 931 and in 949, Byzantine forces led by Theophilos Kourkouas, grandfather to future emperor John I Tzimiskes, captured Theodosiopolis, expelled is Arab population and resettled it with Greeks and Armenians. Basil II rebuilt the city and its defenses in 1018 with the help of the local Armenians. In 1071, following Manzikert, the Seljuks took possession. The Saltukids, rulers of an Anatolian beylik (principality) centered in Theodosiopolis, ruled from the city [, their capital,] from 1071 to 1202. They repelled several attacks and campaigns by the Seljuks and Georgians until 1201 and the conquest of the city and province by Seljuk sultan Süleymanshah II. Erzen-Erzurum then fell to the Mongols in 1242 who looted and devastated the city. With the fall of the Sultanate of Rum in the early 14th cent., it became a province of the Ilkhanate, then became part of the Çoban beylik under the Black Sheep Turkmen, then of the empire of Timur Lenk and the White Sheep Turkmen, and then passed to the Safavids until the Ottomans, led by Selim the Grim, conquered it at Chaldiran in 1514. The city would then serve as the main base of Ottoman military power in the region and as the capital of the eyalet of Erzurum. ... In 1733, Nader Shah took Erzurum in the Ottoman-Persian War (1730-35), but it was retaken by the Ottomans following his death in 1747.

- In 1821, during the last major Ottoman-Persian War, the Ottomans were defeated by the Qajars at the Battle of Erzurum. In 1829 the city was captured by the Russians, [a consequential victory for Russia "mark[ing] a high point of achievement after which political divisions shaped by the 1825 Decembrist Revolt hardened; a pivotal moment which brought British India and Russia face to face in Persia and Ottoman Turkey [and] cast the die for an Asian rivalry which would be played back from India to London as Russian inheritance of Napoleon’s “threat to India” royalasiaticsociety.org/derek-davis-pushkins-journey-to-a... ]. But it was returned to the Ottomans later that year per the Treaty of Adrianople (Edirne). In Feb. 1878, the Russians took Erzurum without resistance, but then returned the city to the Ottomans per the Treaty of San Stefano. There were massacres of the city's Armenian citizens in 1894–1896.

- The 40,000-strong Armenian population was deported and massacred in the 1915 genocide. Their churches, clubs, schools, etc. were looted, destroyed, or otherwise left derelict. When the Russians reoccupied Erzurum in 1916, there were only @ 200 Armenians left alive.

- Erzurum was the site of a key battle in the Caucasus campaign of WWI /b/ the Ottoman and Russian Empires and was captured by the Russians under Grand Duke Nicholas and Nikolai Nikolaevich Yudenich on Feb. 16, 1916. It reverted to Ottoman control per the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March, 1918. In 1919, Atatürk resigned from the Ottoman army in Erzurum and was declared an "Honorary Native" and freeman of the city, which issued him his first citizenship registration and certificate (Nüfus Cuzdanı) of the new Turkish Republic. (all Wikipedia) The Erzurum Congress of 1919, at which the outlines of post-Ottoman Turkish foreign policy and Turkey's modern boundaries were drawn up, would lead to the Turkish War of Independence." (Bradt)

- Erzurum was a 'listening post' for NATO in the cold war, with the code-name 'the Rock'. (Wikipedia)

- The Arabs referred to the place as 'Arz Er-Rum', 'land of the Romans' (the Byzantines), and the Seljuks kept the name. (Bradt)

 

- Pushkin visited the city and then wrote one of the first traveler's diaries in literature: "A Journey to Arzrum during the Campaign of 1829." "The Tsarist authorities [hadn't] allowed Pushkin to travel abroad [he'd been a social activist, influenced by the Kantian liberal individualist A.P. Kunitsyn and the ideas of the French Enlightenment. Outspoken, he angered the tsarist government, and was sent into exile on his mother's estate for a spell; not such a bad exile]; he was only permitted to travel as far south as Tiflis (Tbilisi). His unauthorized journey to Turkey infuriated Nicholas I, who "threatened to confine Pushkin to his estate once again." His text challenged, although it didn't entirely reject, the orientalist romanticism of his earlier 'Prisoner of the Caucasus'" and wasn't a hit with his fans who expected a romantic epic poem. (Wikipedia) It was adapted into an opera in 1987 by Armenian composer Edgar Hovhannisyan www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtJRxzdUchY and into a Soviet film in 1936 directed by Moisei Levin. (I can't find a clip on Youtube.) A quote from the book: "One of the Pashas, a wizened old man, terribly fussy, was talking animatedly to our generals. Seeing me in a frock-coat, he asked who I was. Pushchin gave me the title of poet. The pasha folded his arms on his chest and bowed to me, saying through an interpreter: 'Blessed is the hour when we meet a poet. The poet is brother to the dervish. He possesses neither fatherland nor worldly goods; and while we, poor souls, fret about glory, power, and treasures, he stands equal with the rulers of the earth and they bow down to him.'"

 

I toured the following (I think) per the LP.:

- The highlight in Erzurum (together with the medresesi in this photo) was the grand, atmospheric Cifte Minareli (Twin Minaret) medrese (Seljuk, 1253), surrounded and filled with promenading locals late in the day when I toured it. I recall a time-capsule-ish atmosphere at this medrese that was almost intense. [Update: I might have to edit this and my comment re Sivas further as I think I'm confusing my impression of this medrese with the Bucuriye in Sivas. It's been a long time.] Built by the Seljuk sultan Alaettin Keykubad II, at 35 x 48 m.s, with 2 storeys, a towering limestone portal and 30-m.-high, brick-ribbed, fluted minarets, it's the largest medrese in Anatolia. (!) A carved relief of a double-headed eagle appears on a panel to the right of the portal, a motif for the Seljuks. The central courtyard is surrounded by 4 eivans with double colonnades on the eastern and western sides and seminarians' cells on the upper levels. At the far end of the courtyard sits a 12-sided domed hall, the Hatuniye Turbesi, the tomb of the sultan's daughter Huant Hatun. A small room beneath it with vents to allow in light and air may have been a mescit (prayer room) with a cenotaph, with the tomb itself beneath the floor. (LP)

- The said 'domed hall' is round with blind arches, a conical roof, and is similar to the ancient mosque in the kale and the famous kümbets in town (see below). These are also quite similar to contemporary Armenian churches. It seems obvious that the city's Saltuqid, Seljuk and Mongol rulers employed Armenian architects here. In fact, some claim that the 'domed hall' and the very similar mosque in the kale are converted Armenian churches. allinnet.info/antiquities/erzurum-karin-ancient-armenian-... (To be clear, I'm referring to the cylindrical bldg.s or components of complexes with conical roofs. The eivans and the muqarnas moulding in the portal, sky-lights and elsewhere [inspired by the pomegranate], are Persian in origin. In fact the eivan is early Sassanian in origin, pre-dating Islam.)

- This medrese is thought to be the model for the Gok medrese in Sivas, and likely influenced the construction of the Bucuriye medrese in that city as well.

- Erzurum's Cifte Minareli medrese and the Yakutiye medresesi (in this photo) are 2 of 10 medreses in a proposal for designation as a collective Unesco site, 'Anatolian Seljuk medreses' (although at least 2 are Ilkhanate), on Turkey's (very lengthy) tentative list. I toured 5 this trip, incl. 3 in Sivas: the Gök, Çifte Minareli (in that city), and the Bucuriye.

- www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4L5lNdvvAQ

 

- (More re Anatolian medreses): "These were educational institutions that first appeared in Islamic countries. Before madrasahs, mosques were used as schools outside the hours of worship and education was limited to the study of the Koran and theology. But the use of mosques as schools came to be considered inappropriate, and so hodjas began to give lessons in their homes. The earliest traces of bldg.s known as madrasahs date to the 10th cent. and are found in Khorasan and Transoxiana. These consist of rooms arranged around an internal courtyard with an iwan at the centre of each side and student cells between. This layout influenced the plans of madrasahs constructed in Anatolia: a courtyard, iwan, winter dershane and student cells are found in all madrasahs constructed in this period that have survived to the present day. Madrasahs were built by wealthy people and high state officials and were not bound to the state, and so patrons would devote a portion of their income-generating properties to the madrasah to meet its expenses, incl. feeding students (20 to 40 students per madrassah), employee salaries and bldg. maintenance. Each madrasah was a waqf institution. ..." (Unesco) whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5907/

 

- the austere Ulu Cami (1179, Saltuqid), built by Nasreddin Aslan Mehmed, the Saltuklu emir of Erzurum and restored 5 x since, has 7 aisles running north-south and 6 east-west resulting in a forest of columns in cut-stone. An impressive muqarnas dome in the centre is open to the sky, and a wooden dome and a pair of bull's-eye windows are at the end of the central aisle opposite the entrance. The mosque is also replete with elaborate, low-hanging chandeliers.

 

- a photogenic group of 3 kümbets or tombs, the Üç Kümbetler. The largest, oldest and most unusual is a 12th-cent., octagonal, 'flattened-cone-domed' Saltuqid tomb, thought to be that of Emir Saltuq, founder of the Saltuqid dynasty in the late 11th cent. (!) It was built with red volcanic and gray cut-stone "in a blend of Georgian, Armenian and early Turkish styles" (Bradt), with reliefs of bulls, snakes, bats, eagles and one of a human head /b/ the horns of a bull in its niches. (I'll scan a photo.) The other 2 are Seljuk, 14th cent., cylindrical with blind arches and conical domes (very Armenian in appearance), and are similar to one another. A 4th much smaller, squarish kümbet stands behind. "In the medieval period, these would've been outside the city walls not far from Tabriz Kapisi (Tabriz Gate)." (Archnet) They stand near some centuries-old 2-story houses built with field stones.

 

- the Kale or citadel, erected on a hilltop by Theodosius @ the 5th cent., was damaged and renovated repeatedly over the centuries, including a restoration by Suleyman the Magnificent in 1555. "In Ottoman times, the citadel was the eastern stronghold for many years of the dreaded Janissaries, the Ottoman SS." (Bradt) It's surmounted by a clock tower converted from a 12th cent. Saltuqid minaret. Its walls are intact and harbour some old cannons with Russian or Ottoman emblems and inscriptions, and a fine Seljuk or Saltuqid mosque (not in use) with 3 minarets, blind arches and a conical dome. Steps lead to the top of the rough walls for a fine view over the Cifte Minareli medrese and environs, surrounded by broad mtn.s. The clock-tower/minaret can be climbed too (I don't recall climbing it; it might've been closed?); the clock was made in Croydon, England and was given to the Ottomans by Queen Victoria in 1877. I do recall an event which involved making a phone call (home I assume, long dist.) from a phone booth overlooking the city by this kale.

 

- the small Caferiye Camii (Ottoman, 1645) built on the order of Ebubekiroglu Haci Cafer;

- the Lala Mustafa Pasa Camii (Ottoman, 1563). Lala Mustafa Pasa was a grand vizier, and this mosque might have been designed by Sinan or one of his followers;

- the small Pervizoglu Camii (Ottoman, 1715);

- What a beauty this is, the Solakzade camii (a miss), and it's not in any of the guidebooks.: www.youtube.com/shorts/M0_rJIlUspM

 

- I toured the 'Erzurum museum' which displays fragments of Seljuk tiles, Urartian and Trans-Caucasian pottery, jewellery found in Hellenistic and Roman-era tombs, and artifacts discovered in digs at Büyüktepe Höyük and Sos Höyük (per the LP). I don't recall any of this, but it's been entirely renovated and modernized since. I bought the only postcard on sale, a photo of an object on display, an ancient, phallic incense-burner with a face on what could be the glans (? They must've been low on postcards). I'd become accustomed to buying postcards across Eastern Europe and in Western Turkey, but they were rare to non-existent in the east.

- Some exhibits "document the massacre and mass burial of the Muslim inhabitants of Yeşilyayla and Alaca Köyü by Armenian insurgents at the beginning of the [20th] cent., but the labelling is only in Turkish" (LP, 1995). I don't recall this either, but in 2000 there was a 4-paragraph write-up in a frame on a wall in the museum (I took a photo). Unusually it was in English and was clearly intended to be read by Western tourists. Entitled 'The Problem of Armenia and [unintelligible]' (my photo's a bit blurry), it includes the following.: "... The Armenians were naturally influenced by the emergent Nationalist movement in Europe in the XIX cent. and began to rebel against the Ottomans, whose good intentions and tolerance they had exploited for centuries. [Ouch] ... These separatist movements were changed into rebels when the Ottoman Empire __ __ __ [unintell.] as to collapse during the World War I. Moreover they began to massacre Turks with whom they had lived together for long years. They were also treacherous to benefit from the incapability of the Ottoman empire during the ___ conquest of East Anatolia, mercilessly massacring the inhabitants there from the ___ and innocent babies to the elderly people. ... " It then refers to evidence found in 2 villages in the district of Erzurum and one near Kars. It's fair to say that the Turks have been on the defensive as to the events of 1915 for decades, but the saying goes that the best defense is a good offense. (That said, no-one denies that the Russian Empire, with whom the Armenians were allied, waged a series of brutal wars of aggression for territorial expansion in Eastern Turkey in the 19th and early 20th cent.s, "each [war] more horrible than the last, culminating in the bloody Battle of Sarikamis during World War I." [Bradt])

- I didn't mention the Armenian genocide when I was in Eastern Turkey, but it seems that when foreigners bring up the subject in videos online (at least with elderly local men), the response is 'No, they were jerks and killed our people'. Here's a site that claims that 'Armenian gangs' massacred at least 523,955 Turks from 1910 to 1922. www.genocidestudiescenter.org/turkishgenocideofarmenians

- www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBVJH8Y9CmI See the interaction in Kars from the 2:12 min. pt. to 6:50 in this Dutch doc.

- www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VOkOZlm6WQ

- www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-zaXNF1sLM

- www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_WDJwmxFhY

 

- The LP praises an old hamam in town, but if I visited it I don't recall.

- I don't recall if I toured the Rustem Pasa Hani, a "severe, dark stone, 16th cent. caravanserai, named after the grand vizier of Suleyman the Magnificent." Used today as a covered bazaar, it currently specializes in the sale of jewellery and prayer beads made from the local 'black amber' or 'oblutas', an obsidian-like black jet.

- There's a museum devoted to the Erzurum Congress, at which Ataturk officiated in July and August, 1919, in the bldg. in which it was held, the Sanasarian College, with more school-desks and the photos of participants (as at Sivas), a printing press, and the brass bed in which Ataturk slept. I don't recall if I toured it. (That college had been a prestigious Armenian school, founded in 1881. Most of its teachers perished in the genocide.)

 

- As to Armenian religious heritage, the 'Cathedral church of the Holy Mother of Garin' (1838-'44) had stood somewhere in the north of town on the site of 2 older churches, but it was demolished at an unknown date after WWI. I can't find any other churches in town in a search online.

 

 

- I wrote much in the description to the last photo (of the Ulu Cami in Divrigi) re the interesting Armenian heritage sites not far off my route from Divrigi to Erzurum, none of which were written up in the LP or the other guidebooks, and still aren't notwithstanding the importance of several to the early history of the Armenian church. By contrast, a series of abandoned Georgian churches in the valleys north of Erzurum were in the LP in 2000. I don't know how much the authors of these guides rely on sources in the Turkish tourism industry and in Turkish government when they conduct their research, but I hope the omission of those Armenian sites isn't the result in part of Turkish sensitivities as to the genocide. (The RG writes that "there's not been nearly the degree of official stonewalling as to Georgian Christians as there is concerning Armenians", although 'stonewalling' is open to interpretation.) But, that said, promotion of the Georgian churches to tourists makes good sense in light of their setting in the dramatic and beautiful valleys of the Yusufelli region, the most scenic region I toured in Turkey that trip. (According to Bradt, "the closest thing to these magnificent Georgian valleys are scenes in the remotest corners of the Pyrenees or the Alps.") Not as much can be said for the region @ Kemah from İliç to Erzincan. And these Georgian churches and monastic complexes are more accessible and are generally much better preserved than the Armenian bldg.s at those sites south of Erzincan, and several are quite important to the history of medieval Georgia and the early history of the Georgian Orthodox church. 2 of the churches were converted to mosques centuries ago by Georgians who converted, and have been maintained as such since.

- So from Erzurum I hitched north to the region of the Tortum valley, once the medieval home of Georgian Christians and ambitious architects. Further motivation for this detour north was that I'd heard that some of the valleys in the Yusufelli region were set to be flooded for hydroelectric 'development', and that I should tour them then, if ever.

- "The mountainous country north of Erzurum towards Artvin was once part of the medieval Georgian kingdom [of Tao-Klarjeti], and has numerous castles and churches to show for it. The trouble you take to see this region will be amply rewarded. The mountain scenery is at times spectacular. ..." (LP)

 

- I hitched up the D950 from Erzurum towards the turn-off for Bağbaşı and the Haho manastiri. Only @ 4 km.s north of Erzurum and 2 or 3 east of the hwy. is Çayırtepeköyü. The Armenian 'Holy Illuminator monastery of Mudurga', a scriptorium from the 16th to the 18th cent.s and the residence of the primates of Erzurum, had stood somewhere nearby but, per the collectif2015.org site, it's been "entirely destoyed" and a Muslim place of pilgrimage has been built on-site (the Çayırtepe Köyü Cami?).

- One real miss @ 6 km.s beyond the village of Tortum and a few east of the road as the crow flies was the dramatic, photogenic ruin of the vertiginous Tortum Kalesi. Wow. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHLmIyvp4vc It sits on a rocky ridge above the village of Tortumkale in a valley. Said to have been built by a Georgian king named Mameroz or Mamerol, it probably incorporated an earlier fortress. It was taken in 1282 by the Seljuks, was swiftly retaken by the Georgians, but was retaken a week later by the Turks. It was then modified over the centuries by a succession of Persian, Byzantine, Georgian, Ilkhanid, Aq Koyunlu and Ottoman overlords and warlords. www.castles.nl/tortum-castle

- At the 1st of 3 turn-offs from the D950 for the Serdarli Yolu valley road to the west, there's an impressive, ancient cut-limestone bridge with one high pointed arch, the Kireçli Köprü (which I don't recall), believed to have been renovated by the Seljuks in the 13th cent. and again later by the Ottomans.

 

 

HAHO - I followed the Serdarli Yolu north to the turn-off for the road up alongside the Bağbaşı Creek and followed that @ 8 clicks to the village of Bağbaşı and the grand high-domed Khakhuli manastiri in Haho (10th cent., Georgian Orthodox). "For a tip an elderly local with the key let me in" (from a note on the back of a photo). Part of it's in use as the village mosque and it was more intact and enclosed (certainly as a result) than most of the Georgian churches I would see further north. Several interesting stone reliefs had been left intact over the many centuries despite the bldg.'s use as a mosque and which were all the more impressive for that reason. According to Bradt, the bldg. had been carefully restored by the locals. "Most of the Georgians in the area converted to Islam in the 17th cent.," which might help to explain the state of things. (I'll scan a photo.)

- The monastery was built by David III Kurapalates, king of the Bagrat kingdom /b/ 976 and 1001. It then became "an important centre of literature and Georgian culture and many Georgian scholars and theologians studied and worked there incl. Basil of Khakhuli, Ioane Khakhuleli, Davit Tbileli, and Giorgi Mtatsmindeli." The region advanced economically in centuries to follow with the growth of 300 villages ruled by 30 independent minor feudal lords. Khakhuli was absorbed into the Kartli Catholicate in the 16th cent., but became isolated from Georgia following the Ottoman conquest of the southern Georgian territories. (Wikipedia)

- Khakhuli is a Georgian cross-dome church. The west arm divides into 3 'naves' and the east arm ends in a semicircular apse flanked with a compartment on each side, also topped with small apses. The drum's exterior is decorated with blind arches in the Armenian and Georgian style. (I can't find the dimensions of this church, the height and diameter of the dome, etc. on-line.) Several small chapels surround the church within the circuit wall, one dating from the 10th cent.

- Reliefs on the interior and exterior walls and windows include images of "a lion, a bull, a cock, a pig and a griffon" (a plaque), eagles grasping does in their talons, the regurgitation of Jonah by the whale (resembling a toothy pig with front legs and pointy ears), and 'the aerial flight of Alexander the Great' (in which he's carried by birds). The old man with the key pointed the 'flight' out to me.: "Iskander, Iskander", pointing. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khakhuli_Monastery#/media/File:Sain... (I'll scan photos). From an abstract to an article at jstor.org, 'Alexander of Macedon in Georgian Folktales': "Alexander the Great never visited Georgia during his campaigns, yet is one of the most popular characters in Georgian folklore. The Georgian folktales featuring Alexander draw on literary influences from Antiquity and the Middle Ages, representing at the same time an integral part of national folklore."

- An intricate, lovely 12th-century triptych icon of the Mother of God, originally assembled at Khakhuli on a gilded and silver frame with a collection of Georgian and Byzantine enamels, is one of Georgia's finest examples of medieval Georgian goldsmithery, and is now displayed in the Art Museum of Georgia. (Wikipedia) upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Georgia_Khakh...

According to this site, that icon is "the largest [in] the entire Eastern Christian World." !!

www.atinati.com/news/6388a71b7103640043fa3670

Highly skilled and accomplished Georgian jewellers and goldsmiths crafted 'the Holy crown of Hungary', which has pride of place in the Parliament bldg. in Budapest.

- www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb0GH3YhSSI

 

 

- From Haho, I hitched back to and north up the twisty D950 right past and below one of my biggest misses en route in Turkey that trip, the supernatural Engüzek or Üngüzek kapı kalesi (castle), straight from my childhood fantasies and yours too. Looking over my route on google maps for the first time since then, I've just learned of its existence and saw it for the first time (at least since Sept. 2000) in this video in which the vlogger runs through it, obligingly.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjRMCSrV_A8 ("Çok güzel, çok" at the 6 sec. pt., "Very beautiful, very". See how quiet Turks can be?) If I saw it from the road (how'd I miss it if I didn't?) I don't recall. None of those metal walkways nor the bridge had been installed by 2000, so it would've been quite a trick to gain entry, and the whole pile would've been an obstacle course before it was cleaned up. But I would've had the view that you see at the 32 to 50 sec. pt., and in this photo too (unless the access road is new too, which it looks to be).: www.castles.nl/unguzek-castle (When I first watched the vlogger arrive at the bridge at the 47 sec. pt., I thought of the famous scene from 1:23:20 to 1:25:45 in this.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYhv0O0gUTk )

- The net reveals a surfeit of mtn.-top castles in the area that are handy to the hwy., but you'd expect as much from this Eastern Turkish 'World of Warcraft'. I saw at least a few en route high above and beyond the road, but none up close (that I recall) and none as accessible nor as dramatic as this. From the 'Castles' blog in the link above: "Üngüzek Castle ... tower[s] above the Tortum river and the road from Erzurum to Artvin. ... It was probably built in the Middle Ages by Turkish beys. [Some attribute its construction] to the Byzantines or the Genoese. [I think the Georgians probably built it.] ... I couldn't find a safe way in."

 

- Again, I continued north along the D950 /b/ rising mountainous slopes to the turn-off west up the Gölbaşı Köyü Yolu to the village of Gölbaşı and past that to Çamlıyamaç, home to the ruined Öşvank or Oshki manastırı. (See the next photo taken hiking along the Gölbaşı Köyü Yolu.)

Done