Mt Ararat & Noah's Ark-Eastern Anatolia-Turkey-2012

28 Sept 2012

Our journey continued on through the desolate countryside towards Dogubeyazit, in eastern Anatolia which is only 35km from the Iranian  border and 15 km southwest of Mount Ararat.  Dogubeyazit is on a plain surrounded by some of Turkey's highest mountains including Ararat (5,137m) and Little Ararat (3,896m)  which makes the scenery very photogenic.

Note the barren foreground with Mt Ararat in the distance.

Kurdish Dogubayazit

Mt Ararat at Sunset

 Dogubayazit has a long history of being invaded by various waring tribes dating back to  about 2700 years. Over the years it has been conquered by the Armenians, Persians, Romans, Arabs, Byzantines, Turks, Mongols and Ottomans. It was ravaged during World War 1 and the Turkish War of Independence and later populated by the Kurds in 1930. Today it is mainly Kurdish and  still a thriving trade centre with goods coming in from Iran and other countries to the east.

We overnighted in this unusual town and the next morning headed towards Mt Ararat and the area where Turkey claims to have found the underground stone formations that could be Noah's Ark. We'll ask  you judge for yourselves.

Could this be Noah's Ark?

Fran modelling again for the Photos (Size comparison!)

This lovely old man (grandfather of umpteen grandchildren) was the curator of the Noah's Ark Museum  in this forsaken outpost near Mt Ararat. He, like many others, are absolutely convinced that it is Noah's Ark.

Note the suit!

Explanation of Noah's Ark

Needless to say Tom (a Geologist) and myself, as well as other members of our group, especially the scientists, were a tad skeptical about this being Noah's Ark.

After this interesting experience we loaded into and our van to continue our journey further east and north. However, on our way back down the mountain we just had to stop for a few more photos of Mt Ararat and the lonely countryside where tiny little settlements became the focus of our photographs. We also noticed the non-threatening military presence in this area so close to many of Turkey's far eastern borders. It was comforting rather than threatening.

Mt Ararat is a dormant volcanic cone

Small Settlement. Would you like to live here?

This tank went so fast we hardly had time to photograph it.

Not sure what they were grazing on.

Can you imagine being snowed in here in Winter?

Note the Mosque in this Settlement.

How the other half live!

We couldn't resist the photos!

Last Photo Shoot of Mt Ararat  for our group.

By Nov this land will be under snow!

We were lucky that the weather was still fine as we certainly would not contemplate a visit to this isolated area during Winter (Oct-May). Apparently, it is extremely hot  during summer so if you want to visit the time frame is very short (Sept and Nov).
We highly recommend a visit  to eastern Anatolia as you certainly see a very different side of Turkey.