Tucked away in the farthest eastern reaches of Turkey, in an area only recently opened to outsiders thanks to the long-standing enmity between Turks and Armenians, lies the medieval ghost city of Ani ( Read more... )

The drive was long, but I knew we were getting closer as the elevation increased to make my skull throb and the temperatures drop. Outside there was snow and lava fields as far as the eye could see, all born from that great, Biblical volcano, Mount Ararat.


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Van is a strange city. Nestled between snowcapped mountains on one side and the vast Lake Van on the other, it feels as though it's set into a hidden corner of the world. Despite its size, there are virtually no recognizable brands, the population is almost completely Kurdish, as is the food, and when you're here everyone knows you're an outsider. ( Read more... )

From Diyarbakir we ventured further into Kurdistan en route to an area about which the only thing my Lonely Planet guidebook has to say is: "Travel to this region is not advisable ( Read more... )

Diyarbakir is a metropolis unlike any other I've ever encountered. Regarded as the capital of Kurdistan and spoken of as a dangerous place to be, even by others in Eastern Turkey, it's a place that is at once remarkably homogenous (almost exclusively Kurdish, you would be hard-pressed to find any foreign settlers or tourists here) and yet is ( Read more... )

It almost didn't happen ( Read more... )

Leaving Urfa, we delved ever eastward into a landscape that ranged from desert to vaguely alpine (right down to snowcapped peaks of the Atlas mountains)


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From Cappadocia we embarked on the long drive out of Western Turkey and into the East where Westerners rarely tread. Our first stop was mere miles from the Syrian border in Harran. Famous for being the home of the prophet Abraham, its beehive dwellings and for being a top contender for the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the world, it's ( Read more... )

Before I delve into Kurdistan, this is perhaps the most appropriate place to show you guys the video documentary (though largely un-narrated)we made which covers everything in Turkey up to Kurdistan (which is it's own video, I will post it after the rest of the journal entries are complete ( Read more... )

The night had been incredible, after spending the twilight hours with the village women and children in Urgup, we went on our own to see the Mevlanas (A Sufi branch of Islam) perform the Sema Ceremony (you probably know it better as the whirling dervishes) in a Medieval caravansari (more on those later). I can only recall one other time in my life ( Read more... )