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REVIEW OF THINGS TO DO
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“Dogubayazit at Mount Ararat in Eastern Turkey” |
Dogubayazit (Dogubeyazit sometimes) is a little town at 2,000 metres at the foot of Mount Ararat in far Eastern Turkey, on the border with Iran and Armenia. From here, you can climb Mount Ararat (4 day trip if you want to go to the top) or a day trip if you go up halfway by car. There is a great old palace, Izhaak Pasha Palace, to see (1 Turkish Lira by bus). You can see the site of Noah's Ark and you can visit the new Ark built by Greenpeace. The people are very friendly here and life is cheap - a great quiet place to take a break if you are in the middle of a long trip. A friend I made there, Osman Akkus, has a rug, kilim and carpet store there which sells real Kurdish tribal things from all this region and his prices seem good. But he seems to give away more free tea than selling rugs, as he really loves chatting to travellers. He can help you if want somewhere to stay or can't work out public transport (his store is right next to the bus depot - otogar) - LOCAL CRAFTS Ishak Pasa Caddesi No.35.
From Dogubeyazit, you can make a day trip to Ani, which was the capital city of Armenia about a thousand years ago. It is now rather in a desolate state after years of abandon and earthquakes, but has an incredible atmosphere. There are ruins of every place of religious worship possible in this zone: a Zoroastrian Temple where they worshipped light using a perpetual flame, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Christian churches, as well as one of the first mosques built in Anatolia. AND there are almost no other tourists.
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