Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Eastern Anatolia
Turkey's sparsely populated eastern reaches are its great, mostly undiscovered secret. From
the northeastern steppe and mountains, filmic backdrops for ruins such as Sumela Monas-
tery, to the minarets above southeastern cities, experiences pile up like
lokum
(Turkish de-
light) in a bazaar.
With six neighbouring countries, it's a culturally diverse region, predominantly Kurdish in
the southeast, with small Arabic and Christian pockets and, around the Black Sea and
Kaçkar Mountains (Kaçkar Dağları), Laz and Hemşin people. Indeed, the wind-whipped
ruins are poignant reminders that this has long been the case: Ani was the stately Armenian
capital, a Commagene king built his burial mound atop Nemrut Dağı (Mt Nemrut), and the
Urartians flourished near present-day Van.
For some serious history, one sight far predates even Mardin's atmospheric Mesopotamian
lanes. Göbekli Tepe's Neolithic megaliths, constructed around 9500 BC, may be the
world's first place of worship.
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