Photo: Isak Pasa Sarayi, near border with Iran
The next day we took a bus to Dogubeyazit, a frontier city near the Iranian border. On the way I saw many large military installations and saw Mt Ararat from a distance. That night as we were walking the streets, we encountered a couple from England who were headed for Iran. With them was a local guide who had taken them up to Mt Ararat to see the Noah's Ark remains. He mentioned they had heard some shooting that day. I asked him if there was any chance the Kurd guerrilla groups would ever get this far north. He laughed and pointed to the bullet holes in the buildings around us. My knees suddenly felt weak.
The next morning we took a taxi up to Isak Pasa, almost in Iran. It was built in 1685, had 366 rooms and featured styles of Seljuk, Ottoman, Georgian, Armenian, and Persian. The view from there was sweeping and stunning. One imagined the many armies and multitudes of people over the centuries that had moved across the plains below. That afternoon we took a bus through Igdir to Kars. We were stopped many times by soldiers on the road.
Photo: Tomb at Erzurum
Photo: kids in Erzurum
Photo: Celtic tower in Erzurum
Photo: Mt Ararat in distance
Photo: Near Isak Pasa
Photo: Isak Pasa
Map of Turkey trip
