INTO THE EAST – ERZURUM TO VAN

Sept. 29, 2000
Hotel Sefer, Erzurum, Türkiye

The Zigana Pass Road

We got up, did a few errands, and then got on a bus for Erzurum. We drove over the Zigana Pass
(2023m) through the Pontic Mountains. We had heard that the trip would be hair-raising but the road was unnecessarily maligned. We had the front seats in the bus and were all prepared for a terrifying, sheep dodging drop that never materialized. The road climbed steeply through misty, green valleys until we finally climbed into a rather barren chapparal landscape reminiscent of Nevada or Riverside County in Southern California.

We crossed the pass and drove through mostly barren basin and range type country, punctuated by scrubby trees and shrubs turning red and gold with the fall chill. It rained most of the way. We stopped briefly in the town of Gümüşhane, but there wasn’t much there. Neither was there much in Bayburt. Both were colorless, deserty places, hunkered down and grim looking under the lowering clouds.

Erzurum

We climbed, at last, over Kop Pass and saw what appeared to be a castle, but may have been only a rock formation, perched atop a peak. Kop Pass is at 2375m. From there, we descended to the busy, little town of Erzurum.

There is a lot of history in Erzurum, but it is certainly not apparent at first sight. The town is built largely of concrete and, in the fading light of a rainy eveing, appeared entirely gray. There were many traffic circles and the traffic careened about with the usual Turkish abandon.

Our hotel was a but shabby, but only 17 million lire a night. The beds were the first we had experienced in Türkiye where one could sit down hard without encountering the platform beneath the mattress.

We ate dinner at a place called the Vatar Lokhantasi (restaurant.) We had the stew and rice as both of us had Sultain’s revenge. We ordered a couple of desserts: aşure (a compote of walnuts, raisins, corn, and chick peas) and baklava that had never seen a nut except what was spinkled on top. The slice of baklava was about four times the usual size, however. All of this came to a whopping $7.50 for two.

Erzurum suffered a devastating earthquake earlier in 2000, but we could see little evidence of it other than that the roads and sidewalks all seemed to be very uneven and often ended in piles of dirt or 12-inch drop-offs. We would be able to see more in the light of day.

Sept. 30, 2000
Hotel Sefer, Erzurum, Türkiye

Çifte Minareli Medrese

The weather improved significantly and we managed to tramp all over Erzurum without getting wet.  We went to the Çifte Minareli Medrese (twin towered monastery) and the Ulu Cami (Grand Mosque.) We walked between and behind them, past houses ruined during a war with Russia in the 19^th century, to the three Seljuk tombs.

Ruined Houses in Erzurum

Seljuk Tomb

Two Seljuk Tombs

We were dogged by children who had learned English in school and wanted to show us around. We returned to Cumhuriyet Caddesi (Freedom Street – the main drag in every town) and crossed the street to head up towards the Kale (Citadel.) Once again, we were acosted by a group of children, this one led by a light-haired 12-year old boy who spoke good English. He introduced us to his friends and gave us a tour of the Citadel.

Children Outside the Kale

Before heading out that direction, we had visited the Lala Mustafa Paşa Camii (1563) and the Yakutiye Medrese, a 14^th century Mongol seminary, which is now a museum.

Deanna at the Yakutiye Medrese

After visiting the Kale, we headed back to the west, thinking we would go to the Erzurum Museum. As we passed the Ulu Cami, a young man stopped us and asked if we would speak English with him. We took him to lunch at the Sultan Sekisi Şark Sofrası. Our new friend, Recep, ordered for us. We had the usual kebap (lamb on a skewer with a wooden handle), eaten with lavash, stuffed grape leaves, and something that seemed to be a cross between spinach lasagne and spanikopita. After lunch, Recep took us to the caravanserai, where we looked at black amber jewlery, and then to the bus office where we bought our tickets to Doğubayazit. Then we went to a bookstore and bought a Turkish/English dictionary. Recep walked us back to our hotel.

We had met a Norwegian man earlier in the day and had arranged to meet him for dinner. He was riding his bicycle from Norway to China and was feeling very solitary. We asked Recep to come back and join us for dinner, later. He brought his uncle, who was very polite, but didn’t speak English. The five of us went out for dinner. After some confusion between Turkish, English, and Norwegian, we ended up in the Güzelyurt, the best restaurant in town. There, we had an appetizer of raw meatballs (tasty) and lamb chops or a mushroom casserole. Dinner for five, including two beers, came to less than 19 million lire. The restaurant was very elegant, but not very Turkish looking. Our Norwegian friend left us after dinner and the rest of us went for dessert at a local hangout. I had a dessert made with cheese and shredded wheat, which was very good.

Erzurum has beautiful views of the mountains when it is clear, especially from the Kale hill. There are many old houses and ruins in old Erzurum and lots of handsome old men in wool caps. Horses and wagons mingled with trucks and buses on the busy streets.

Oct. 1, 2000
Hotel Isfahan, Doğubayazit, Türkiye

We were supposed to meet Recep and his uncle, Hussein, at the bus office in the morning at 10:45. The service bus was due to leave at 11:00. We left the hotel at 9:45 and dashed across town to an internet café to let Zakir (our friend from İstanbul) know that we were on our way to Van. Then we went to a bookstore to buy another copy of our Turkish/English phrasebook. We couldn’t find the right bookstore, but the one we did find had a better phrasebook actually aimed at anglophones trying to learn Turkish.

We got back to the hotel in time to get a taxi to the bus office, but the desk clerk took so long to run our credit cards (and he added a 3 million lire surcharge) that we did not leave the hotel until 10:55. The name of the bus company was not on our receipt and the taxi driver was no help. He took us to the wrong bus company and by that time we had missed the service bus so had him take us to the otogar. We felt bad about standing up the boys and that we never got Recep’s address. It took us awhile to locate the right bus company when we got to the otogar because the company that sold us the tickets was not the company that took us to Doğubayazit. We found it, eventually, and sat down to wait. After about 20 minutes, Recep and Hussein showed up. We were very glad to see them and get Recep’s address.

The ride to Doğubayazit took about four hours. We drove through Nevadaesque landscape past truckload after truckload of sugar beets, most with entire families in brightly colored shawls and blankets riding on top. We passed many beehive shaped ovens and stacks of dung for fuel. When we got within ten kilometers of Doğu, we could see Ararat, but the summit was obscured by clouds. We had passed through Ağri at about the halfway point and there was nothing there but dust and piles of rocks.

 Ishak Paşa Sarayı from Afar

Doğubayazit is not much more attractive than Ağri, but it does have a few trees, the Ishak Paşa Sarayı on the hill in the distance, and the mountain. We checked out a couple of hotels, found them equally bad, so picked the cheapest. Our room sort of had a view of Ararat, or Ağri Daği as they call it in Türkiye. The room was shabby and nothing matched, but we had a shower and a toilet that flushed, so the $15/ night wasn’t too bad. All of the hotels in town looked like they were built in the 1960s and hadn’t been maintained since. Doğu was a grubby, little oil boomtown. It was muddy, run down, and could definitely have used a woman’s touch, but the people were friendly enough. We were only 35km from the Iranian border. Our taxi driver agreed to take us on a tour the following day.

Peeled Poles Used for Scaffolding

Oct. 2, 2000
Hotel Grand Derya, Doğubayazit, Türkiye

We meant to leave Doğubayazit for Van today, but we had so much fun on our taxi tour that we missed the last dolmuş and had to stay. This was okay because Doğubayazit had grown on us.

The Ishak Paşa Sarayı

We met our taxi driver, Metin, at 10:00. First, he took us up the hill to the Ishak Paşa Sarayı. The palace was being restored and they were doing a marvelous job. They put in steel supports for earthquake bracing, but they followed the contours of the arches and domes very carefully so as not to ruin the beauty of the place. The palace sits high on a hill, overlooking Doğubayazit and Mt. Ararat. You can also see the ruins of Eski Bayazit, the old village, which was abandoned in 1937. The air was clear and cool and the views were magnificent. After the air pollution of other Turkish cities, the Doğu area was a welcome relief.

Stonecutter Working on the Ishak Paşa Sarayı

We spent quite awhile at the Ishak Paşa Sarayı, taking pictures and video. Our guide was a real ham and we got many shots of him. After visiting the palace, he drove us up into the hills and we drove for miles and miles through rugged scenery and Kurdish villages of stone huts.

Kurdish Village

The Kurds are shepherds and wheat farmers. We ate a lunch of lavash and sheep cheese purchased in one of the villages. We stopped in another village and visited Metin’s great-grandmother who was about 90 years old. She had the greatest face I had seen in a long time. The Kurds are not all Muslim and the women seemed to have greater freedom. They came out and waved at us and the children followed us everywhere. Even in Doğu, the women appeared to have more freedom, but there were very few of them there and the men could not find wives. Our guide, Metin, was half Kurdish and half Iranian. He was not married because, he said, “There are no girls.” The hotel manager, Fuyyat, was married but his wife and child lived in İstanbul.

Our Guide, Metin

Ararat in the Clouds

All day, we hoped that Ararat would come out of the clouds, but it never did. We could tell it was snowing up there because the lower slopes got whiter and whiter all day. We stopped on top of a hill to admire the view. Metin was playing Kurdish music (lots of bagpipes) on the stereo and he taught us some Kurdish dances (very like the Hora) and we danced. We all laughed a lot and had a great time.

We drove over the mountains to the east of Doğu and suddenly came upon a modern building on our rutted, dirt track in the middle of nowhere. This was the Noah’s Ark Museum, presided over by Uncle Hasan. It is almost empty, but has some articles on the discovery of the ark and a great view of Ararat, some twenty miles away across the plain. What we were NOT expecting was that we got to see all 515 cubits worth of the ark. It lies on the mountainside, mostly beneath ground level, and there were sheep grazing in it. It was quite clearly visible and they had found carvings and petrified wood with traces of metal bracing. I, for one, was convinced. The location at 7,000 feet in the hills behind Doğu was much more plausible that the 17,000’ summit of Ararat, although I still judged it to have been a backyard boat project that never got launched.

Noah's Ark (lower left)

Me, Metin, and Deanna at the Noah's Ark Museum

After the ark, we headed out to the Iranian border. There was a big, long line of trucks waiting to cross in both directions. Truckers were making tea and playing cards while they waited. We saw our Norwegian friend cycling towards the border on his way to China. Being American, we could not cross the border, but we went to the meteor crater which was right in the shadow of the guard towers. 

Meteor Crater

From there, Metin tried to drive us closer to Ararat, but we ran into a platoon of Turkish soldiers out for a run and they turned us back. We went back to Doğu and, since we had missed the last dolmuş, we asked to go to the Grand Derya, which was the best hotel in town. The Hotel Isfahan had no hot water and I was willing to spend a little more so I could wash my hair. It turned out to be cheaper. The Hotel Isfahan charged 10 million lire plus 1.5 million each for breakfast. The Grand Derya was only 12 million lire including breakfast. Metin was friends with Fuyyat, the manager, and we all sat in the lobby and drank tea together. Everyone at the hotel got a kick out of looking at the day’s video footage that we titled The Metin Show.

We went upstairs to rest for a bit, mainly because I was starting to have to peel Metin off of me. Then we went out, bought postcards and stamps, and ate the best meal we had had in Türkiye for a total of $5. I had Iskender kebap (lamb, chicken, tomatoes, and peppers with yogurt and a red sauce) and Deanna had hunks of lamb and eggplant surprise. We went back to our room and the phone rang. It was Fuyyat, the manager, inviting us to have a beer with him. We went down for a beer and a visit and he had prepared a feast of grapes, peaches, bananas in honey, and wonderful chocolates with hazelnuts. It had been our best day in Türkiye, so far, and we had thought there was nothing to do in Doğubayazit. Türkiye was full of surprises.

Doğubayazit

Oct. 4, 2000
Hotel Büyük Asur, Van, Türkiye

Mount Ararat

Ararat was still hiding its head in the clouds when we got up, yesterday, but by the time we were ready to leave, it had decided to reveal its magnificence. We left Doğubayazit on the 11:30 dolmuş, the 10:00 dolmuş having somehow failed to materialize. Every seat on the dolmuş was taken and there were two people sitting on stools in the aisle. The girl sitting next to me had apparently just left her boyfriend behind and she cried all the way to Van, except when she was on her cellphone. The ride to Van took about 2.5 hours. We drove through barren hills and then through an extensive lava flow. The last 60 kilometers or so, we drove mostly along Lake Van (or Van Gölü) which is very blue. If Trabzon were the Seattle of Türkiye and Erzurum the Denver of Türkiye, then Van is the Salt Lake of Türkiye. They grow sugar beets, wheat, and apples there. The lake was very alkaline and contains only one kind of small fish, the pearl mullet, that is adapted to it.

Our Dolmuş to Van

When we got off the dolmuş about 15:00, we heard someone calling our names. It was Zakir’s cousins, Fuat and Mehmet. They were ready to show us around, right away, but we had things to do. They showed us to their uncle’s hotel and then we unpacked and set out to find a laundry and dry cleaners. We ate lunch and walked around the city until it started to get dark. We came back to the hotel and Zakir’s cousin, Mehmet, was waiting for us. We spent a little time in Fuat’s kilim shop and then Mehmet went upstairs with us and ate some dinner while Deanna and I each had a beer. We had a long talk about the Kurdish situation, the Armenian situation, Iran, the carpet business, and the United States. It was a very pleasant evening.

Oct. 4, 2000
Hotel Büyük Asur, Van, Türkiye

Seljuk Tomb in Gevaş

We met Mehmet and a young French-Canadian couple named Eric and Manon at 9:00 and set out for Akdamar Island. We drove around the shore of the lake for about 45 kilometers and stopped in the town of Gevaş to see a Seljuk tomb, erected for a young woman in 1358. There were also many other gravestones there, mostly from the 14^th to 17^th centuries, although there was one as late as 1946.

From Gevaş, we drove to the ferry dock at Akdamar, where we waited until an Australian fellow from our hotel and two Israeli men joined us to share the cost of the ferry. It ended up costing us 3 million lire each, including admission. The island is 3 kilometers from shore and it felt good to be on a boat again, even if it was a stinkpot. There were no private boats on Lake Van and it is a huge lake.

Mehmet on the Ferry to Akdamar Island

The only building remaining on the island is the Armenian Akdamar Kilisesi, built in 921. There was once a palace, monastery, and harbor on the island, as well, but they are now vanished. The exterior of the church was in pretty good shape and the biblical carvings were fabulous. I climbed half way to the top of the island to take photos. The island, itself, was very much like Santa Cruz Island off the coast of California, although smaller and closer to shore.

Armenian Church on Akdamar Island

After we returned to shore, we all ate a lunch of the pearl mullet from Lake Van in an outdoor restaurant overlooking the lake. There was a tiny tiger kitten, just weaned and not happy about it, that begged all through the meal. We hoped we would be able to see one of the famous, white Van cats before we left.

Lake Van

Oct. 5, 2000
Hotel Büyük Asur, Van, Türkiye

Van Kalesi

We met up with a couple named Thomas and Veronica from Toronto about 15:30 yesterday afternoon. They had bought carpets from Mehmet three years ago and were back to buy more. The five of us climbed in Mehmet’s car and drove out to Van Kalesi (Castle.)

Van Castle was established by the Urartians in about 825 B.C. The Urartians built all 72 of their castles on rock outcroppings in order to save the fertile land for crops and grazing. Van Castle is on a huge reef of rock and was the center of the Urartian empire.

All That Remains of Old Van

First, we walked around the base of the rock to the site of old Van. The original city of Van was destroyed after World War I when the Russians and Armenians were fighting with the Turks and the Kurds. Only two mosques remain, but you can see the foundations from the top of the rock. Next, we climbed up the rock and squeezed through a locked gate to visit the Urartian crematorium hollowed out of solid stone. From there, we climbed further up the rock to a sacrificial altar and then up to the Seljuk watchtower. There was also a Seljuk castle made of what 

The Seljuk Castle

looked like mud. There were timbers jutting out from the castle all over the exterior. At one time, these supported balconies. We climbed to the top of the castle and watched the sunset. Then we continued out to the end of the ridge where there is an abandoned Ataturk head that the government gave up lighting because people kept stealing the bulbs. A gaggle of small boys followed us, trying to sell us sunflower seeds. Deanna was wearing sandals and had a hard time getting back down.

Van Castle at Sunset

The five of us went to the Merkez Et Lokantasi for a veritable orgy of lamb. Then we went back to Mehmet’s shop and drank raki and looked at carpets until after midnight. I fell in love with a black, rose, and beige Caucasian carpet that had to be an antique with a price of $2700. It was very unique and well made, but I didn’t know how I was going to pay for it since Mehmet didn’t take credit cards.

Oct. 5, 2000
Hotel Büyük Asur, Van, Türkiye

Edremit

In the morning, we went with Mehmet, Thomas, and Vernonica to Edremit to visit a 10^th century Armenian church and the site of what is, for some reason, called the “Girl’s Castle.” There was nothing left of it. The stone blocks had been used to build the village. Mehmet said the site had been inhabited for ten thousand years.

We took Thomas and Veronica to the airport and then came back to the hotel to rest for a few hours. I had come down with a cold, so I slept. About 16:00, we headed out with Mehmet to the waterfall at Muradiye.

Deanna and Me at Muradiye

It was a beautiful, natural setting and we had fun playing with three friendly sheep dogs and watching the shepherds herd cattle across the suspension bridge.

Anatolian Shepherd

Herding Cattle Across Suspension Bridge

On the way back home we stopped in a park by the lakeshore to watch the sunset. We got back around 19:30 and sent Mehment home to his family (although we suspected he went to his shop, instead.) We ate dinner at the Çinar Et Lokantasi and then came back to the hotel to have an early night.

Oct. 7, 2000
Otel Kardelen, Tatvan, Türkiye

Hoşap Castle

Friday morning, Mehmet took us to visit Hoşap Castle, a Kurdish castle 58km down the road to Hakkari. The castle there is really wonderful. Parts of the castle, including the Seljuk entrance gate, are quite well preserved. The Kurdish chieftan had the architect’s hands cut off when the castle was finished so he would never design a greater one. Parts of it are carved into the stone outcropping, part is stone, and parts were mud, although those are mostly gone. It was built in 1643. It was strange to walk around such a primitive ruin, knowing that at the time it was built, my father’s family was already in America.

Deanna in Hoşap Castle

From Hoşap, we drove 33km back along what was once the silk road to Çavuştepe. Çavuştepe is a Urartian castle built in the 8^th century, B.C. The keeper of the castle was an old man name Mehmet Kuşman who was the first person to decipher the Urartian language from the cuneiform writing at the site. He showed us around and our friend, Mehmet, translated. The foundations of the castle were built of perfectly rectangular blocks of dressed stone that fit snugly together with no mortar. They had been transported from across the lake. One of the tablets mentioned the delivery of 40,000 such stones. At one of the temple sites, there are polished stones cut from black basalt and inscribed with a history of the castle in Urartian cuneiform which appear almost new nearly 2800 years after their installation.

Fine Stonework at Çavuştepe

The castle stretched along a ridge (Urartians always built on rocky outcroppings to save fertile land.) for 180 meters. The rooms opened off of a central corridor. The castle had not been completely excavated and most of it was gone, but there was enough left that we could identify a depot full of clay pots containing grain. Mr. Kuşman reached into one and pulled out a handful of 2700 year old wheat. There were also a wine cellar (no wine, though), harem, cisterns, and temples. The cisterns were particularly interesting because they were cut into a layer of solid granite on the top. Once they had penetrated the top layer, there was a softer layer benath and they had hollowed out that layer and lined the walls with more dressed stone. In places, the central corridor was hewn through that same layer of granite like a roadcut. It was pretty impressive. Mr. Kuşman carved basalt figures in his copious spare time and Deanna bought a little figure of the Urartian goddess of beauty, Hepa. From Çavuştepe’s elevated position, we could see across the border into Iraq.

Mr. Kuşman & Mehmet by a Cistern

Ruins at Çavuştepe (Iraq in the Distance)

We gave Mr. Kuşman a ride back into Van but he declined our invitation to lunch, saying he was bored by eating with ladies. Mehmet, Deanna, and I ate at Altın Şiş Frunlı Kebap. I was pretty miserable with my cold by then and just wanted soup, which they did not have. The food was very spicy and just made my nose run, so I made do with rice and a few beans. I would have killed for a burrito at that point. All the food in Eastern Türkiye was spiced with red pepper and it tasted very much the same. Where was the garlic in Türkiye? I was looking forward to reaching the Mediterranean.

After lunch, we went to Fuat’s kilim shop. I bought a nice Van kilim for my friend, Michelle, and an Iranian one for my friend, Dale. They were about $75 each after bargaining. Deanna bought a wonderful animal rug and kilim mix, a door hanging, and a small kilim, similar to the one I bought for Dale. Then we went out to shop for blankets, but were told it was too early in the season. We had fallen in love with the plush Korean blankets in Doğubayazit. We went back to Mehmet’s shop to conclude our carpet business. Deanna bought four kilims (2 runners, one 5’ x 7’, and once 5’ square) for $1,000. I bought the carpet I had fallen in love with three days before for a price of $2200, $500 less than he had originally asked.

After we had concluded our business, Fuat insisted on taking us to dinner, so we went back to the Merkez Et Lokantasi where I managed to get a bowl of çorba (lentil soup), at last. I was about to die from my cold and was very happy to finally reach my bed.