Sept 00 - The Turkish/Armenian border, the Akhurian river, ruins of a medieval bridge, the Minuchihr mosque (at the top-right) taken from the 'covered stairway' near the Monastery of the Hripsimian Virgins (Armenian, 11th - early 13th cent.)

Armenia's left of the river, Turkiye's on the right. Because of its border location, visitors had to obtain a pass in 2000 from the Directorate of Security in Kars, and leave passports with soldiers at the entrance gate while visiting. The bureaucracy has its roots in the Soviet period, when "Ani was within a 700 m. no-man's land imposed by Moscow on the border, and visits were governed by a strict protocol agreed to between Moscow and Ankara" (LP). Taking this and any photograph of the border is forbidden. or it was in 2000.

 

- This was taken beneath an arch, what's left of a vaulted roof over a 'covered stairway', partly cut into the natural rock, by or near the enclosure wall and church of 'the Convent of the Hripsimian Virgins.' The roof had been intended to maintain the privacy of the nuns or female residents of the convent, as exposed as it was otherwise.

- The picturesque, slender chapel of this small convent stands with the ruins of some other bldg.s on a rocky promontory, isolated within a walled enclosure and overlooking the Akhurian river. It likely dates from the early 13th cent. but could date from the 11th. An inscription on the Church of Saint Gregory of Tigran Honents refers to the nearby monastery of Bekhents, restored by Mr. Honents, which could be this.

- Although small, the chapel has a complex, vertical design. The roof over the dome is particularly complex: multi-gabled and shaped like a half-closed umbrella, rising from zigzag moulding, the only surviving example of this sort of roof at Ani although the style may have originated in this region. The roof of the St. Sargis church at Khtzkonk (see below) has a similar design but dates from the 11th cent.

- Externally, the drum divides into 12 faces separated by clusters of 3 colonnettes. Blind arcades outlined with interlace carving divide the external wall of each apse into 3 faces. Remaining traces of decoration in white and dark red paint include a band of rhombuses below the cornice of the lower roof. Inside, 6 tiny, plain apses encircle the central space beneath the drum and miniature cupola.

www.virtualani.org/virginsconvent/index.htm

- Vloggers explore this complex from the 2:45 min. pt. in this video. The point where I stood to take this shot is at 4:50.: youtu.be/ejhSDO6SYSc

 

- Far below at the centre of this shot, tall abutments stand on either side of the Akhurian river at the site of a medieval, single span bridge (10th, 11th or 13th cent.). The span (30 m.s) fell long ago. One or the other abutment might've been part of a fortified gate. 19th cent. travellers reported that there had been a guard-house next to the bridge. "The broken arch of the bridge has become symbolic given Ani's current situation - a city cut off from the country of its creators." (VA)

- Some sources refer to a 2nd bridge below the Kizkale, but not much if anything remains of it. www.virtualani.org/bridge/index.htm

 

- The steps I was standing on here are on a path that leads down to the river and links to a roadway to the bridge. Some structures in the river-valley bottom (which I didn't tour) incl. a tiny, single-naved chapel and a rectangular bldg. that might've been a watchtower.

 

- At the top right at the edge of the bluff and the ravine (and on the left in my photo of the cathedral) is the Minuchihr mosque (Menuçehr camii), "claimed [by some] to be the first built by Seljuq Turks in Anatolia (1072)," and by others to be built on the foundations of that first Turkish mosque in @ 1330. (See the description of the photo of the Cathedral.)

- From the mosque, I explored or passed the Citadel, attempted to climb to the Kizkale, toured other sites in the NW part of the site (see descriptions of the photos of the Cathedral and of the Church of St. Gregory of Tigran Honents) before the soldiers at the gate in the walls called me back. What a day, the whole site was surreal, unique and magical and I can't recommend it enough.

- www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-TfRwXY5Oc

 

- From Ani I hitched straight back to Kars where I spent a night and did some touring in that city that evening and the next day. (I write about Kars at length in the description of the ruins of the Church at Bana/Banak.: www.flickr.com/photos/97924400@N00/2908782516/in/photostr... )

 

KHTZKONK (pron.?) - The next day (or the day after?), with plans to tour the dramatic ruins of the Khtzkonk monastery at Beşkilise (Turkish for '5 churches', although only 1 still stands), I left Kars and hitched SE @ 40 clicks down the D070 to the town of Digor (formerly Tekor) at the east end of the valley of the Derinöz river. I then hiked west into that river-valley on the wrong side, the south side, although I had a good view en route of the sole remaining ruined church in the canyon from across the river. I had to hike a ways further west and down to and across the river, and up and back east along the north side to reach it.

- The monastery did have 5 churches spread out over 3 rock spurs within the gorge, each "domed and carefully built out of finely cut stone.": St. Karapet, St. Astucacin, St. Stephanos, St. Gregory, and the largest and only one standing, St. Sargis. The churches have no foundational inscriptions. The monastery was abandoned following the Mongol assaults of the 13th cent. "In 1878, following the Russian conquest of the Kars region, it was returned to the Armenian church, the bldg.s were renovated, and religious life resumed within. New accommodation was constructed for monks and pilgrims along the edge of the main spur, by the river below, and to the NW of St. Sargis."

- An inscription on the north face of St. Sargis, the only church to have survived.: "In the name of God, in the year 1214, I, Davit son of Grigor, general under the chief Zakaria, saw the splendour of the Holy Monastery of Khtzkonk ... and I gave 1/2 the village of Vahanardzesh, which is in my possession, to Surb Sargis church as a memorial to myself and my parents. Because of this, I, Hovhannes the abbot and vardapet, and the other brothers, have ordained that an annual liturgy should be celebrated by me in all the churches on the feasts of David, Hokob, Paughos and Petros, and the Holy Shoghakat without fail. If anyone opposes or obstructs this memorial, as much as God has blessed that man, may he be cursed." According to the 12th cent. historian Samuel of Ani, it was commissioned in 1025 by one Prince Sargis. [He wrote: "1029, the 3rd year of the rule of Constantine [VIII, Porphyrogenitus]. The venerable Sargis after having built many bldg.s, both fortresses and churches, built the wonderful monastery of Khtskonk, and decorated its holy place of atonement, known by the name of St. Sargis, with a radiant crown." See the video in the link below.] The earliest inscription on its walls dates to 1033. Another, from 1211, records the liberation of the monastery from the hands of the Muslims.

- St. Sargis is a domed, quadruple-apsed, centrally-planned church with a circular exterior. The style of the roof is angular and umbrella-shaped [distinctively Armenian], which could be the earliest surviving in that style if it also dates to 1025. [It's referred to by Samuel of Ani as "a radiant crown" and by Prof. Goshgarian as a remarkable innovation, "likely the first example of the umbrella dome."] The unusual moulding of the interior window frames, with their "curved, open-bed pediments" overlapping a moulded cornice and resting on columns, is also "extremely unusual in Armenian architecture." Blind arcades encircle the exterior and divide it into 20 sections, with long inscriptions on many of the surfaces /b/ arcades. 2 large khatchkars, each within an elaborate vaulted shrine, stood by opposite ends of the church.

- St. Sargis was built at the end of the most flourishing period of the "Ani School" of Armenian architecture. The quality of its construction and the finish of its masonry exceed anything that survives at Ani, and its architectural details are more refined, mature, and are carved to a higher standard. It reveals what might have been if historical developments had permitted medieval Armenian architecture to continue to evolve at Ani. (Many of these architectural ideas were taken up again when conditions permitted in this region in the 13th cent., so much so that St. Sargis was once considered to be from that later period.) The impression given is of a bldg. not made out of many individual blocks of stone, but carved, like an enormous sculpture, out of a single mass of creamy-orange rock. (VA)

- Prof. Rachel Goshgarian speaks about this complex from the 9:10 to the 29:25 min. pt. in this lecture.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhXq9DZouK4

- "The overall appearance of Khtzkonk must have been breathtaking, perched at the edge of cliffs and encircled by higher cliffs as it was, in a picturesque harmony of architecture and environment. The rigorous geometry, smooth surfaces, and sharp edges of the churches were in contrast to the natural features and landscape of the gorge, but the churches complemented that environment." (VA)

- Re the 4 missing churches: 1. The Church of St. John the Baptist (Surb Karapet) (7th - 10th cent.). The earliest inscription dated from 1001 (or 1006) and mentioned Queen Katranideh of Ani, wife of King Gagik. Only a small fragment of wall and the foundations of the apse survives. 2. The small, domed Church of the Holy Mother of God (Surb Astuacacin) (likely 10th cent.) with its simple, square plan. 3. The rectangular Church of Saint Stephanos Nakhavka (10th or 11th cent.) with its cruciform interior, was surrounded by the graves of martyrs from the 1208 siege of the city of Ketchror (Gechivan/Tunçkaya). Only fragments of its base survive. 4. The tall, narrow 'Church of Saint Gregory the Illuminator' (likely 10th or 11th cent.).

 

- The monastery remained in use until 1920 when the remaining Armenian population of the Kars region was expelled by the Turks. The area then became a restricted military zone closed to visitors. (A special permit was required to travel to Digor as late as 1984.) When the monastery was next visited by a French historian in 1959, only a badly damaged St. Sargis was left. It was reported then that villagers said the churches had been blown up by Turkish soldiers. There's little doubt that the destruction was caused by explosives. Lumps of masonry from the churches have been flung far from their original positions. Slopes /b/ the spurs are filled with lumps and shattered fragments of masonry, columns and sculpture, chunks of inscription-covered wall, etc. The walls of the apses and chapels of St. Sargis have been blown outwards, apparently by explosives from within. The location of a dated piece of modern graffiti (positioned to be lit by a window that is now gone) suggests that the destruction took place sometime after 1955. Foletti and Riccioni (in 'Inventing, Transforming and Discovering Southern Caucasus, Some Introductory Observations', Venezia Arti, 2018) state that St. Sargis bears damage that couldn't have been entropy. "All the evidence seems to confirm that the 4 bldg.s were intentionally destroyed with modern, likely military, means (Fontana, 2018). ... Evidence collected in a recent study by Tania Fontana indicates that we are facing a phenomenon that could be defined as “cultural genocide” (Fontana 2018)" consistent with the official denial of the events of 1915. "The destruction of art objects became an explicit instrument to erase the memory and the very traces of reality." edizionicafoscari.unive.it/media/pdf/article/venezia-arti... What a shame. But my visit involved a good, scenic hike to a lovely destination and an impressive church (although, having been badly shaken in the earthquake of Dec., 1988, it's "in a state of near collapse" [VA]). It must've been a great place to live as a medieval monk, waking up to that view every morning. (I'll scan a photo) youtu.be/fGC98x0ayws?si=dz2VTOsuuZVo10Cw

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw09T_PprkQ

 

- I hiked back along and above the gorge to Digor and then SE down the D070, the D080, through the wacky city of Iğdır, and along the D975 and the E99 146 km.s, @ 1 hr. and 45 min.s to the city of Doğubeyazıt in the shadow of the legendary Mt. Ararat (of Noah's Ark fame). I don't recall this stretch and don't believe I saw nor was aware of any of the many interesting sites and sights along or near it, all misses.:

- The town of Digor itself (formerly Tekor) is home to the low ruins of the ancient Armenian 'Tekor Basilica', a cerebral miss as the Basilica dates to the 5th cent. and "the inscription dating it to the 480s was the oldest known writing in the Armenian language." !! And "its stone dome was amongst the earliest to be constructed in Armenia. Until its destruction [in earthquakes and through vandalism in the early 20th cent.], Tekor was the oldest extant church in Armenia." (Wikipedia) Wow.

- A few clicks SW of the D070 at a pt. 4 km.s south of Digor is the village of Varli (former Zipni), home to a 7th-9th cent. Armenian church converted to a mosque. At one time in a cemetery west of the church there were 6 funereal monuments carved in the form of stone horses. (VA)

- The famous cathedral at Mren, on a volcanic plateau @ 5-6 km.s NE of the village of Karabağ, itself @ 3 km.s east of the D070, is only @ 1.5 km.s from the Akhurian and the border. A huge, early 7th cent. rectangular, triple-nave Armenian church with a semi-intact dome in an abandoned medieval town, a visit involves another long hike. But the photos of it impress incl. those of exterior sculpture with "numerous, extravagant khatchkars" and a lintel relief depicting "'the Restoration of the Cross' at Jerusalem in 630, following its removal by the Persians in 614." (LP) A real miss. "It was built by David Saharuni, an Armenian prince and ally of the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (r. 610-641) to celebrate the latter's entry into Jerusalem in 628." (Wikipedia) One of Turkey's earliest examples of Armenian architecture, It merits one of the longest and most detailed descriptions at the 'Virtual Ani' site.: www.virtualani.org/mren/index.htm

- A small, boxy but well-preserved Armenian church with khachkars on its facade @ 100 m.s from the river and 500 m.s north of the Kurdish village of Kilittaşı and a few km.s north of the D070. www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1hhBtc-I6s Kilittaşı itself was a miss as "it partially lies on the ruins of Bagaran", one of the historical capitals of Armenia. "According to the Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi, the city was founded by king Orontes IV of Armenia in the 3rd cent. BC. and quickly became the religious centre of Armenia, replacing Armavir as the main spiritual site of the Orontid pagan temples. With the fall of the Orontids and the rise of the Artaxiads, king Artaxias I relocated the pagan monuments from Bagaran to his newly-built capital of Artashat in 176 BC. ... In 895, following the establishment of the Kingdom of Armenia, Bagaran became the capital of an independent Armenia under king Ashot I. His successor king Smbat I moved the capital Bagaran to Shirakavan in 890 [sic?]. Under Bagratid rule, Bagaran remained a prosperous centre of the Armenian kingdom. Many members of the Bagratuni dynasty, incl. Ashot I, were buried in Bagaran." Somewhere in the vicinity there must be some trace of the Church of St. Theodore (624-631), "one of the most prominent examples of early medieval Armenian architecture. It was largely intact until 1920, but was deliberately destroyed by the Turkish authorities." (Wikipedia) So interesting. Here's a photo of the site of the ancient city.: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagaran_(ancient_city)#/media/File:BAGARAN-KILITTAS.jpg

- The D070 passes within 300 m.s of the river and the border less than 500 m.s NE of the village of Halıkışlak.

- I hitched to the T-junction where the D070 meets the D080 and east and SE down that road. The ruined Kızıl kale, 'Red castle', sits on a ridge above and less than 50 m.s from the Akhurian, @ 1 km. NE of the D080. @ 30 km.s further SE down the twisting D080 and a few before Çalpala, the rte. passes @ 1.5 clicks south of the 'Karakale' aka the Sürmeli castle which also overlooks the river and the border. ("Near the village of Sürmeli [, @ 4 km.s east,] stand the ruins of the medieval city of Surmari, with a [ruinous but prominent] citadel whose surviving walls date from 1224." Is this it?] The region @ Iğdır is RIFE with ruined castles, at least 25 listed in one paragraph in this article, much of which focuses on the Karakale.: igdir.ktb.gov.tr/TR-55719/kaleler.html It's unknown when Sürmeli/Surmari was built [by Armenians], but Melikshah, son of Arp Arslan, "entered the Sürmeli Trench" with his army in 1064, defeated the 'infidel' defenders who fled and "climbed and climbed the mountaintops, ... put all that remained to the sword, leaving none," and then conquered 'the castle called Surmari' in which "there were streams and gardens." He wanted to "then ruin it" but the vizier Nizam al-Mulk "forbade it." (Seljuq sources) www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs5ml8ZnPkM The city then "became one of the most important of the Middle ages" and is mentioned in the 'Dede Korkut stories'. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhyisEOT628 It was attacked by Georgians and Mongols, taken by Tamerlane in his first Near Eastern campaign and was sacked by Tokhtamish of the Golden Horde. www.flickr.com/photos/97924400@N00/48172909502/in/photoli... "The Spanish ambassador Clavijo visited the city en route to Persia to meet Timur and gave this description.: "This is the first city established after the flood ... by the sons of Noah, we are told. Surmari is a big city. Mount Ararat extends 6 leagues from here. Noah's ark was placed on this mountain. Surmari, which is at the edge of the Arash River, is surrounded by a deep valley on one side and steep mountains rise on the other sides. In this respect the city is in an extremely magnificent place. It has a castle with strong towers on [both] its ... external and internal [gates]." ... It appears to have been largely destroyed in earthquakes in 1664 and 1840 ([the earlier] is said to have been very severe and lasted 7 days and 7 nights.) ... But a portion of the inner castle (17 x 8 m.s) still stands today." So it was a miss.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvjPWVjOwyw

- The much-restored 13th cent. Armenian 'Caravanserai of Zor' is @ 15 clicks SW of the D080 and @ 20 SW of Iğdır. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfwr5UomgKI

- Küllük and Yayci are 2 towns on the D080 NE of Iğdır that have this same passage in their Wikipedia entries.: "[This] is one of 21 Muslim villages @ Iğdır where Armenian gangs raided and killed the men and raped the women in August 1919. On September 17, 1920, again a part of the village was murdered."

- Iğdır is a big city of just > 100,000 (which I passed through but don't recall), home to the interesting 'Iğdır Genocide Memorial and Museum' (1997-'99, new in 2000) which promotes Armenian genocide denial. "The stated aim of the memorial [which of course is free] is to "commemorate massacres and persecution committed by Armenians in Iğdır Province" in WWI and the Turkish-Armenian War. The memorial was built to further Armenian genocide denial and a disproven narrative." (Wikipedia) www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0RodvHQg2I

- Iğdır has a couple of impressive, modern, neo-Ottoman mosques, the Ulu cami and Merkez cami. www.youtube.com/shorts/PqCAhjT31Zk

- Air pollution is a chronic problem here, primarily due to the burning of coal. "In 2021, Iğdır became 'Europe’s' most polluted city. [Europe's?] According to MPs and specialists, another health risk arises from the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant in Metsamor, a nearby border town in Armenia. Recent research shows that the nuclear power plant causes cancer cases increases in the region." (Wikipedia)

- Karakoyunlu, a town @ 12 km.s off-route, on the E99 NE of Iğdır, is where "gravestones with ram heads [can be seen], remnants from the Qara Koyunlu period, which commemorate brave, heroic men and persons who died young. (It's unclear from the Wikipedia entry if these are in the museum in town.)

 

- I passed south through Iğdır down the the D975 towards Doğubayazıt and into the land of Noah (or Noah's Ark tourism) with fine views of Mt. Ararat. Ağri Daği, Ararat's peak, rises and looms only @ 10 clicks east of the hwy. and the village of Kabak, as the crow flies.

 

 

- I had arrived in DOGUBAYAZIT (referred to by its nick-name 'Dog-biscuit' by most backpackers), which made an impression with its rough frontier-town atmosphere. Only ever muddy or dusty with its unpaved streets and with horse-drawn traffic /b/ big, loud trucks loading, unloading or passing through, the RG refers to it as scruffy, impoverished and heavily militarized (as close to the border as it is). Its population of @ 80,000 is Kurdish. ("Also known as Kurdava, it was the capital of the self-declared Republic of Ararat, an independent Kurdish state centered in the Ağrı Province" [Wikipedia]). It seems to have changed quite a bit since 2000 with so many paved streets seen in videos online. I don't recall any sights in the city itself. My only vague recollection of it was walking down the street late in the day and feeling like the kid on the road in Powaqqatsi.: youtu.be/QhV_FW9HU4c

- Doğubayazıt is new, built by the Turks in the 1930s on the plain below the old site of Bayazit (Doğubayazıt = 'East Bayazit') following destruction of the latter by the Turkish army in response to the Ararat Rebellion. That earlier city had been known by its Armenian name Daruynk before the Ottoman conquest, and famously withstood a Sassanian siege in the 4th cent. Bagratid princes resided there and rebuilt the fortress into its present configuration with integrated walls, baileys and towers ascending up the rock outcrop in stages. (See below.) It became the seat of a bishopric when King Gagik Arcruni reoccupied the fortress in @ 922, and was subsequently conquered and reconquered by Persians, Armenians, Byzantines, and Seljuks. The castle was renamed Beyazit in the 16th cent. after the Turkish warlord Celayırlı Şehzade Bayazıt Han who rose to power upon the dissolution of the Il-khanate and ordered one in a series of reconstructions in 1374. Beyazit saw fighting in the Ottoman-Persian War (1821-23) when the Qajar commander-in-chief Abbas Mirza occupied the town in 1821, and in 1856 when it was attacked by Russia, and in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) when it fell to the Russians. When the Russians retreated many local Armenians left with them [according to Wikipedia] to build New Beyazit (now Gavar in Armenia) on the shore of lake Sevan.

- By 1930, Bayazit was populated by Kurds incl. Yazidis from the Serhat region. It became the capital of the Kurdish Republic of Ararat led by Ibrahim Haski and Ihsan Nuri of the Xoybûn organization /b/ 1927 and 1930. The town was thus dubbed the provisional capital of Kurdistan and was subsequently presented to the League of Nations and the Great Powers as the center of an independent Kurdish state." Wow! I had no clue. (Wikipedia)

 

- The ISHAK PASA SARAYI: I headed 5 km.s SE (walking and hitching?) to the famous, semi-ruined 17th-18th cent. palace, the İshak Paşa Sarayı. A well-preserved beauty in yellow sandstone (and one of only a few surviving historical Turkish palaces [in this case Kurdish]), it's sited dramatically on a terrace at a height above the road (the silk road!), with slopes covered in ruined houses on the hillside below (the site of Eski [Old] Beyazit, founded by the Urartians, which at its peak had a pop. of 250,000), and a vast landscape. An "impossibly romantic" (RG) "pleasure palace" with "a sybaritic feel" (Bradt), "the Topkapi of the East", it's become one of the most photographed and iconic sites and sights in Turkey. It featured on the back-side of the 100 Lira banknote from 2005-2009, and I've seen at least one guidebook that has it on its cover.

- youtu.be/jvydA9wI8Fo

- www.youtube.com/shorts/X8dGphwx038

- Construction began in 1685 by a Kurdish bey of Beyazit province, Çolak Abdi Pasha of the Cildirogullari family, hereditary pashas related to the House of Jaqeli (a Georgian princely family), and continued under Ishak Pasha, a descendant of Abdi Pasha, who became the pasha or sanjakbey of Çıldır Eyalet from 1790-'91 and completed construction of the Harem in 1784 according to an inscription. Damaged by an earthquake in 1840 and briefly abandoned, then partially restored over the following 20 yrs., it was damaged again in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878), was later used by the Russians, and then as an administrative centre and as a fortress until 1937. It's since been designated a Unesco site. "It is not at all in the Ottoman tradition but is rather a mixture of Anatolian, Iranian and North Mesopotamian [Mardin?] architectural tradition." (Unesco) (But the baroque paint job on the interior of the dome in the mosque looked Ottoman to me.) The quality and style of the sculpture in high relief stands out, primarily in foliate designs, images of plants, flowers, etc.

- İshak Paşa was "the feudal overlord of this area, nominally under Ottoman control, ... [who] made his $$ through domination of the lucrative silk caravan routes from this vantage point. ... Frederick Burnaby, travelling here @ 80 yr.s after it was built [not really, 1877], wrote that it belonged to a Kurdish chieftain who expressed the wish to own the most beautiful residence in the world, and, after conversing with numerous architects on this subject, accepted the services of an Armenian. The Armenian proceeded to design a magnificent palace with large stained-glass windows and every possible comfort. The pasha was pleased and to ensure that the Armenian could not construct a similar one for a rival chieftain, ordered his hands to be chopped off. The poor man died shortly afterwards as a beggar. [This is a common myth re the fate of the most successful architects, e.g. the architect of St. Basil's on Red square. I can't find a clip on youtube from Andrei Rublev of the scene with the blinded architects.] The pasha met with his just desserts, dying of a snake bite after committing all sorts of excesses. At the time of Burnaby's visit, the palace was being used as a barracks at a time of preparation for war against Russia in 1877. The large, very expensive stained-glass windows had all but disappeared. ... [etc.]" (Bradt)

- The palace complex includes 116 rooms and the following.: open 1st and 2nd courts; a men's quarter (selamlık); a mosque (divided in 2 with marble pillars in one 1/2, a gallery beneath the ornate dome, and a stone-carved minbar); a soup kitchen (darüzziyafe); the extensive harem (a maze-like series of rooms, incl. 14 long, narrow bedrooms on the cliff-edge, each with its own fireplace and windows overlooking the valley [I'll scan a photo], 2 round bathrooms [1 hot, the other cold], and with a large kitchen [with a ceiling supported by huge intersecting arches similar to those in the south narthex in the Church of the Apostles at Ani], and dining area); the harem garden (a grassy, secluded terrace at the foot of the palace, visible only from the harem); I took a photo of sculpted wooden brackets (?) jutting out from the bldg. in the form of birds [or winged creatures?] and stylized human heads; a "superbly colonnaded feast room, with mirrors in the blind arches"; a ceremonial or audience hall with a reception area; elaborately carved gates; pantries; an armory; free-standing tombs in an elaborate, octagonal turbe in a courtyard (with an Armenian umbrella-dome, and high reliefs of tall plants in niches on each of its 8 sides); a subterranean mausoleum; a library, bakery, dungeons, and a central heating system (!). (Wikipedia) I don't recall all of that, but I toured it thoroughly and there were few other tourists there then. These days it's packed. What a difference Unesco designation makes.

- The Russians absconded with the grandiose gold-plated doors at the entrance gate in their retreat from Anatolia in 1917; they're now in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. (I can't find a photo online.)

- It's lucky I toured it when I did as "a controversial new glass and steel roof, installed to preserve the walls, has spoilt the classic photo of the palace taken from above." (RG) I'll scan 1 or 2 I took.

 

THE URARTIAN/AMENIAN FORTRESS: I then descended from the Sarayı and crossed the road to an ancient, picturesque mosque (see below) at the base of a steep craggy hill, the site of an ancient fortress with impressive defensive walls, baileys and towers integrated into the natural rock at ascending levels, "rebuilt in its present configuration" by medieval, resident Bagratids. (See above.) This was Bayazit Kalesi, once the Armenian fortress of Daruynk, although it's known and promoted today as a Urartian fortress, which it had been close to 2,000 years earlier (almost 3,000 yr.s BP). I can't say how much of what can be seen today is Urartian, beyond rock-hewn stairs and channels. (See some from the 9:30 min. pt. in this vlog.: youtu.be/zj1JgaYnSNQ ) I missed the remains of the ancient Urartian capital and citadel at Van ('Tushpa'), but here and by chance I explored a former Urartian citadel, and the closest to Mt. Ararat, which is said to have been named after the civilization of Urartu.

- I think I left after climbing the height of the fortress itself, if it was below the top of the ridge, as it was dusk and the sun was low. "The highest point ... is the only point from which a view of Ararat can be had" (Bradt) as this outcrop blocks the view, and I didn't take a photo of Ararat there. :(

 

- The first thing to inspect before climbing up and up was the interesting, boxy, clearly ancient 'Bayazit cami' (1514-1520, but with a new dome from 1987), built with multi-coloured stone blocks, and its stumpy minaret. A tour-guide in a video says that it was built "after Yavuz Sultan Selim [the Grim] defeated the Persians at the battle of Chaldiran [in NW Iran, Aug. 23, 1514]." This region was then absorbed into the Ottoman empire.

 

- THE URARTIAN TOMB or SANCTUARY: The most remarkable find here (and a lucky one as it wasn't in my LP photocopies) was an Urartian monument from the 8th cent. BC high in the face of a cliff facing the valley, visible above a steep path leading down from the fortress to one side. 2 figures carved in relief stand in profile on either side of a central niche (an entrance I've just learned!; all these yr.s I assumed it was an altar in a niche - ?) and face to the right, the east. (This is referred to most often as a tomb online. I approached close to it but couldn't access it nor get a direct view into the niche/entrance.) The figure at the left gestures with arms raised next to a goat above the entrance, an offering, and the other wears a tall conical hat and holds a cane or a staff. The figures are crude and folk-art-like. (I'll scan a photo, but you can see one in this link: www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g790195-d6160809-Re... ). It was a real surprise, and the moreso that something so clearly pagan, "one of the best-known Urartian monumental pieces of art", had survived so many centuries of iconoclasm, etc. at 'Eski Bayazit'. (The Armenians descend from the Urartians. Did they consider this tomb to be that of an ancestor? Is that why they let it be?) Both figures are beardless, wear ankle length tunics [the one on the right wears an overcoat too] and both stand on 'a kind of socle'. The staff held is 'ball-finished' and appears to be symbolic of power or authority. The interior has 2 levels connected by a rectangular shaft, the upper chamber "with 2 niches beneath 2 natural skylights", and the lower with "3 smaller chambers". It's atypical for a Urartian tomb as it's uniquely adorned with reliefs. Even the royal tombs of Argishti or Neftkuyu at Tushpa, "which were to be the most splendid and grand in the kingdom", weren't so elaborately decorated. Further, this monument faces SE while Urartian tomb entrances typically face south by design. K. Jakubiak maintains that the scene in relief is one of 'presentation or introduction', that the figure on the left is a petitioner presented by the figure on the right, a deity of lesser rank and, if so, " both [stand before] the main deity". He cites Huff who notes that the composition seems to be unfinished, as the portion of the cliff face before the figure on the right was "only partly smoothed." He suggests that the figure on the right could be the god Turani, often depicted with a goat in Urartian iconography. "If we assume that it's not coincidental [that both figures face east] then it's fair to say that the main deity should have solar aspects", and that the focus of the supplication is Šuini, 1 of 2 Urartian solar gods. He also suggests that the chambers behind form a 'sanctuary' in use with chthonic aspects of Urartian religion and with a focus on local agriculture (in this less fertile region), that might've been the scene of rituals at the winter solstice as the rays of the sun would shine through the skylights. ('Eski Dogubayazit - A Tomb or a Sanctuary?', Krzystof Jakubiak)

- Often you have to be lucky or thorough or both to find such things w/o a guide in the Middle East. This vlogger stands above and close to the tomb from the 9:30 min. pt. in this vlog, having squeezed through a crevice, but doesn't have time to go down some more rock-hewn stairs and take a better look. He just missed it and I relate. youtu.be/zj1JgaYnSNQ

 

- To quote from my write-up re my photo of the tunnel in Amasya, "in leaving [that city] I left the classical world and that of the 1st mill. B.C. to explore the medieval world of the Anatolian Selcuqs, Saltuqs, the Il-khanate, more of the early Ottomans, and of the Christian Georgians and Armenians up until my arrival at Dogubayazit". Here at this citadel I had returned to a mix of the medieval and the pagan 1st mill. B.C., and much earlier at points further east beyond the border.

 

- In leaving Bayazit kalei and the Ishak Paşa Sarayı, I walked down the road through the ghost village of Eski Bayazit, with its low, rectangular houses on stone-lined terraces and explored a house or 2 or 3. Then back to Dog-biscuit.

 

- One big miss was "the much visited tomb of the Kurdish poet and philosopher Ehmede Xani, whose Mem u Zin ('Mem and Zin', 1692), a tale of tragic, star-crossed lovers, is THE epic of Kurdish literature" (RG). youtu.be/UfYn7Ns0Fn8 Photos of it online, with its alternating bands of red and white stone and its 3 domes (in an 'L'), impress, but of course the importance of this tomb to Kurds far and wide makes it such a draw. (This video has no captions and it's lengthy [30 min.s], but nicely shot and edited, and the narrator's voice is hypnotic.: youtu.be/si7WKtgRpUw ) It's by the road just a short walk up from and past the Sarayi. Get a good guidebook! (Btw, the RG seems to be the best for Turkey. With Bradt, it depends on who the author is for each guide. While her impressions can be interesting, Diana Darke, the author of 'Eastern Turkey', makes so much shit UP in the details, and writes as if she assumes you're not interested in history and won't care. One of umpteen examples, she wrote that the Ishak Pasa Sarayi was built in 1800.)

 

- This area at the foot of and just south of Mt. Ararat seemed to have something of a mystical atmosphere (which might not surprise you if you've seen a few of the videos in the links above) with its strange, barren, mountainous landscape and the beauty of Ararat itself, in a mix with that of the wild west or the frontier. How much did that result from associations with Noah and his ark? I'm not religious but I was raised in the church and remember watching a documentary on TV when I was a kid or a tween on the discovery of the Ark under the ice, or of bits of it, the first time I heard the name Ararat, and memorized it. (It might've been this one.: 'In Search of Noah's Ark' [1976] youtu.be/6TS8hpDa_YQ ). That said, I don't think I gave much thought to a hike to the top of it in 2000 (? - Why not?). Transcendant views from the summit were a big miss, but the climb requires research, provisions, a guide?, good boots, etc. and $ I couldn't spare that trip. But then it might've been easy enough.

- A good view of Ararat from my window seat on a flight over NW Iran from Abu Dhabi back to Toronto in 2009: www.flickr.com/photos/97924400@N00/4357321208/in/datepost...

- Dogubeyazit sees a procession of fundamentalist Christian tourists from the West (who tour Nuh'un Gemisi [see below]), but I don't recall meeting any. See some in this video.: youtu.be/NKwM0mshi4Y (Southerners are so charming. See how flattered the local interpreter is when he interviews them at the 2:00 min. pt., and one says "Ah luuhv it, it's a wunnerful place, beautiful views, great people. Ah feel honoured bae-eer. ...")

- In 2007 and 2008, 7 large wooden rooms or compartments were allegedly discovered near the peak of Mt. Ararat, in a cave or caves below the ice, by Turkish and Chinese explorers from 'Noah's Ark Ministries International' based in Hong Kong. In 2010 they were "keeping the location secret for now." I can't find an update online. (""I don't know of any expedition that ever went looking for the ark and didn't find it," said Paul Zimansky, an archaeologist specializing in the Middle East at Stony Brook University in N.Y. State." [NG]) If they DID find a wooden structure, or even a boat, "it could be a shrine constructed by early Christians to commemorate the site where they believed Noah's Ark should be", which would be very cool and a big deal. ("The [C.S.] Monitor cited a leaked e-mail, attributed to [ark-hunter Randall] Price, suggesting that Kurdish men could have trucked wood up the mountain to stage an elaborate hoax for the Chinese-Turkish team." (from a post to Scienceblogs.com) www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/100428-noahs...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0cpk2GcVuw The idea that they might have found an ancient Christian or Islamic shrine isn't far-fetched. "Reports of sightings of the Ark [were] numerous [in antiquity as well]. The 1st-cent. Jewish historian Josephus writes of people who claimed to have seen the giant wooden ship. Muslim conquerors of the Armenian region built a mosque on what they thought was the site of the Ark’s landing place and claimed to have removed enough wood from the Ark to construct a mosque at nearby Cizre on the modern Syrian border, the location of 1 of no less than 5 rival tombs of Noah." rodbenson.com/2023/06/13/mountains-of-scripture-2-mt-ararat/

 

- Two other big misses in the area are natural sites unbeknownst to me in 2000 and which are quite close to the Iranian border and to one another.:

1. Nuh'un Gemisi, 'Noah's Ark' (now part of 'Durupınar geological National Park'), an interesting and photogenic natural geological formation which appears to be a syncline ("a trough or fold of stratified rock in which the strata slope upward from the axis"), with stone walls or cliffs which curve and align in the shape and dimensions of an ark (!), or at least a cruise-ship-sized boat, claimed to be the remains of 'Noah's ark'. It looks to be worth a tour (although it's no petrified ark) and so is the cheesey but earnest museum handy to it. Detailed exhibits re scientific 'tests' argue that it "fits exactly with the dimensions of the Ark provided in the Old Testament, and that even the original anchors have been located." www.youtube.com/shorts/Gvw3fLMkcoo It's @ 4 clicks as the crow flies SW of a pt. on the E80 20-25 clicks SE of Dogubeyazit. (Any excuse for another hike in the area is a good one.)

- Bill Nye: youtu.be/F4OhXQTMOEc

- Calvin Smith explains how 8 people supplied sufficient fresh water, etc. to, and cleaned up after, the tens or 100s of 1000s of pairs of hungry, thirsty animals on board the ark for a year.: youtu.be/5M6U6xTltlQ People will believe what they wanna believe.: youtu.be/y3pX2FIc8YQ (The results of 'archaeological' research and expeditions on Mt. Ararat in search of the ark, and accounts of 'revelations' etc. is too wide and deep a rabbit-hole for this space.)

- A scene from Evan Almighty (cute but unfunny; the Americans couldn't market a 'Life-of-Brian'-style take on even the wackiest bits of the Old Testament, which would be box office poison in the heartland.): youtu.be/g_U9jZQ54LM

- youtu.be/h6omFJhKr6o

2. An incredible meteor crater dating from 1913, with sharp edges and resembling a round, karst sinkhole, 35 m.s wide, 60 m.s deep. It's only a couple of clicks from the border, 35 km.s SE of the city, and @ 6 as the crow flies NE of the hwy.

 

 

- I don't recall if I hitched or took a dolmuş (which I might've done as I wouldn't want any issues at the border), but I travelled @ 35 clicks E, S, and SE down the E80/D100 through a landscape steeped in the lore of the biblical ark and flood to the Iranian border crossing at Gurbulak. That was in mid-September. Kargakonmaz, a tiny village of only 211 Kurds, 3-4 clicks S. of the E80 as the crow flies, has a Wikipedia entry with 1 line which reads cryptically: "Its proximity to Mt. Ararat has led to various stories of the town's involvement in Noah's story." 'Kargakonmaz' means "the Raven won’t land" (Genesis 8: 6-7).

 

- Iranian customs was crowded, low-tech (in a dimly-lit bldg.), and my entry was uncomplicated. I'd arrived in IRAN! A land of magic (literally, deriving from the Old Persian 'magush' for 'magician') and mystery. (When I told my eccentric friend and former house-mate Kevin in late 1999 that I was planning to travel in Iran [I was reading my guidebook at the time], he looked away and said quietly and with gravity, as if to himself: "Iran. ... I ran so far away. ... But I couldn't get away." youtu.be/iIpfWORQWhU ) Three months of non-stop tourism would ensue. (I'll write more re generalities and my impressions in the 2nd photo comment from this, the one of the Kurdish woman in the red shirt; this one's so long. www.flickr.com/photos/97924400@N00/2992794856/in/datepost... ) I'll say at the outset that I was guided in large part by the LP, the first edition of the guide for Iran (1992), and that I'd also arrived in 'Western Azarbayjan province', known for its mix of Azeris, Kurds and Christians.

 

- I think I changed some $ at Bazargan @ 1 click south of the border on the 32 before setting out to hitch south towards Maku (Mack-oo). All these years I thought I passed through that city per my LP guide, but google maps reveals that rte. 32 turns East just above Keshmesh Tappeh, whereas Maku is at the end of the 'Maku-Bazargan rd.' and spreads out over a few km.s before connecting to the Khoy-Maku rd., which joins the 32 further east. The 32 is less direct (it loops up north and back south), but it's the hwy. It would be impossible to pass through Maku and forget it, judging from videos online (right??), my first real miss in Iran. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhkJ2xmB9tw According to the LP (in 2000), Maku is "not unattractive [not at all!], straggling along either side of a mtn. gorge at 1,634 m.s", but is "of no great interest." ?! But "there are a few Urartian sites" in its vicinity, incl. "the small citadel of Sangar," 8th cent. B.C. (another miss) a few clicks NW of town, a few south of the 32. Sangar is home to the "largest Urartian rock chamber in Iran. ... The larger examples have several small rooms around one large central room and, in a few cases, a rock-cut staircase outside the central chamber [as at Sangar]." According to local lore it was the home of Farhad, the Persian Romeo of legend to Shirin's Juliet. www.iranicaonline.org/articles/urartu-in-iran www.youtube.com/shorts/H9zCZ47ATXE

- "Maku was one of many Azerbaijani khanates that gained semi-independence in the chaotic period following the death of Nader Shah in 1749. Although rejoining Iran in 1829, the khanate was only finally abolished a century later." (LP, 2012). !

- The ruins of 'Qaban [or Qoban] castle', a small, Mesa-Verde-esque fort with 2 round towers, "where the Báb was imprisoned for 9 mos.", sit beneath an impressively massive overhang in the gorge in 'greater Maku'. ("The Báb was the messianic founder of Bábism, and one of the central figures of the Baháʼí Faith" [Wikipedia]). It's a Baháʼí pilgrimage site today. According to one video online, the fortress was medieval Armenian. There's reference online to a lengthy, navigable tunnel that extends under the mtn. from the fortress. The gorge stuns at that point, another miss. www.youtube.com/shorts/9KVbp-IhsgM

- The lovely, baroque, late-Qajar-era Baqcheh Jooq palace, former home of the local sardar (military governor) under Shah Muzaffar al-Din (1896-1907), now a museum and surrounded by 11 ha.s of gardens, 7 clicks NW of the city centre, was another miss. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBYsB6MrsfI www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOI1a1CCWgQ The octagonal, Qajar-era Kolah Farangi house, with its impressive wrap-around balconies on 2 levels was a miss too.

- 'Maku' by Moudy Schricker: youtu.be/YCfdePebhpU

 

- The tower-like medieval, monastic Chapel of Dzordzor (Apostolic Armenian, 1315-'42) stands on a mtn. above a green lake with a view of Mt. Ararat @ 10 clicks south of Maku as the crow flies, but much more by car up a twisty road with hairpin after hairpin. It was relocated 600 m.s by the Iranian authorities in 1987-'88, to avoid inundation by a new dam on the Zangmar river. 7.2 x 5.1 m.s, and 12.58 m.s tall, it's now a Unesco site, part of the group designation 'Armenian Monastic Ensembles of Iran' (one of 3), and of course it was a miss.

- Politics are all-important in the Middle East. Iranian authorities were well aware of Armenian pride in Armenian architectural heritage beyond the borders of the then Soviet republic in 1987, sensitivities as to the fate of such beautiful, ancient churches [what with their destruction by the Turks at Khtzkonk, etc.], and possibly of Armenian influence with Soviet authorities. The salvation of this church, the only ancient monument to be moved like this in Iran (the Islamic Republic!), Abu-Simbel-style, would've been perceived as a responsible and highly considerate effort by their neighbours to the north, and by their Armenian constituents in Tehran, Esfahan, etc. Active conservation of medieval Armenian monuments in Iran and their promotion through Unesco might also speak to a sympathy with Armenians on another level, as the inheritors of a glorious architectural heritage and as descendants from the most accomplished, expert and pioneering engineers and architects of their time. Medieval Armenian and Persian engineers and architects lived and worked in the same world, and their exchange of ideas and discoveries can be seen in their monuments. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d9fT2j8gws

 

- Many videos on-line (without captions) depict the travails of Afghani and Pakistani refugees seeking to cross into Turkey from NW Iran illegally via tunnels, across frozen mtn. passes in the Zagros, etc., and the victims of human smuggling. See the incredible landscape that the people in this video are heading towards and plan to navigate at the 4 min. pt. and following in this video.: youtu.be/iOMSSht9XuU Watch them wade across a river in winter at the 6 min. pt. (Everything comes to youtube.)

 

- I continued hitching along the 32 past Khalaj to the turn-off to Shut or Showt (on one of 2 parallel roads) and headed south @ 6 clicks to that town where I spent my first night in Iran. (See the next photo).

Done