home  shooting plan   journal  locations  panoramas  team  documentaries  e-mail

DOGUBEYAZIT

It's only 35 km between the Iranian frontier and Dogubeyazit, a town that is dusty in summer and muddy in winter, is pleasantly quiet after its bigger neighbors. A range of bare, jagged mountains tower above the town, while in front of it stretches a table-flat expanse of wheat fields and grazing land. On the far northern side of this flatness rises Mt. Ararat (5137 m. - 17,000 feet), an enormous volcano capped with ice and often shrouded in dark clouds. The mountain has figured in legends since time began, most notably as the supposed resting place of Noah's Ark.

Five Km. east of town is the Ishak Pasa Saray, a fortress-palace-mosque complex perched on a terrace and one of the most extraordinary buildings in Turkey.  Built on a platform with a marvelous view over the Ararat plain, this unusual palace was the inspiration of a local dynasty of local overlords in the second half  of the 18th century. Ishak Pasa started his ruled over eastern Anatolia under nominal Ottoman sovereignty  in 1789. From his palace he dominated the trade which flowed along the Silk Road below, gaining much wealth and spending it on the creation of this place.