East from Urfa is where the real East starts.
East from Urfa means finally leaving the Anatolian plateau and entering the Armenian highlands, far away from Europe, mass tourism and Western influence. This is the most interesting part of Turkey due to the cultural heritage it gathered over the centuries: Kurdish, Armenian, Persian, Syrian, Russian...Before actually driving eastward, I made a detour to the summit of Mt. Nemrut. This is the mountain where one Commagene king decided to build a mausoleum using deities from the Greek, Persian and Armenian traditions. But he did not build his memorial at the foot of the mountain, he had it done at the very top of a 2000+ meters high isolated peak in the middle of nowhere. Nowadays, there is a paved road all the way to the top, which makes a great motorbike trip for both the awesome scenery and the feeling of being at the end of the world.

What can be seen at the summit of Mt. Nemrut from the distance is a huge pile of rocks that is supposed to contain a royal tomb. Nobody has opened it yet, though, because of fear that the whole structure would collapse. However, this site is famous for two terraces, on either side of the mausoleum, that contain the remains of sculptures from that period. Most striking are the standing heads of those sculptures, partly damaged and representing different gods.

After that stop, I continued driving and crossed the Ataturk dam, went past Diyarbakir, over the mountains to lake Van and the city with the same name. The town currently has a Kurdish majority and there would be many Armenians if the Ottoman Empire had not kicked them out a hundred years ago. Since they were forced to march to the Syrian desert, many of them simply died. The city proper nowadays does not have much to see but its castle, which lies outside the urban center next to the lake and is a very beautiful sight indeed, especially at sunset.

Keeping on the Armenian heritage trail, I visited Akdamar island in lake Van. The setting is magnificent and it contains a church that can be considered a paradigm of Armenian churches: red and black stones, crosses carved everywhere, inner walls covered with frescoes, pointy conical domes... here you can see a detail of the carvings by the main door.

What else... a visit to the Kurdish castle in Hosap, lots of baklava and on to the next destination: Dogubayazit next to Mount Ararat. On the way, a quick stop at the Muradiye waterfalls where many locals were having a picnic. They made for a great picture but, unfortunately, the water was not clean enough for a dip... too much rubbish everywhere.

Next chapter will take place next to Mount Ararat, where Noah was supposed to have landed after the Flood. Will I find the Ark? Many adventurers have tried before, including Indiana Jones...