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Doğubayazıt is a frontier town in Eastern Anatolia near the Turkish border with Iran. It’s remote but travelers will be rewarded for their efforts.
Introduction to Doğubayazıt
Doğubayazıt, in the shadow of Mount Ararat, has a history dating back to the 8th century BC and the Urartu period. For most of its history until the Ottoman period, it was an Armenian town known as Daruynk. The Armenians had a fortress there that held off a Sassanid invasion in the 4th century.
After the 10th century, Daruynk was controlled by the Persians, Armenians, Byzantines, Seljuks, and Mongols followed by other groups of Turks. The Safavids took the town in 1502 and held it until it was conquered by the Ottomans in 1578. They renamed it Bayazıt after Turkish warlord Celayırlı Şehzade Bayazıt Han, who rebuilt the town in 1374.
Bayazıt remained heavily populated by Armenians until the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. The Russians took control of the town for a brief period, but when they retreated, the majority of Armenians left with them and founded Nor Bayаzet (New Bayazıt), now Gavar in Armenia. Kurds and Yazidis took their place.
The Turkish army destroyed the original settlement of Bayazıt in 1930 during the Ararat Rebellion, a local Kurdish uprising against the Turkish government. The current town of Doğubayazıt was subsequently built in the plains near the old town.
Today, Doğubayazıt is Turkey’s gateway to the East and Iran’s gateway to the West. There’s not much of interest in the town itself, but exploring the Ishak Pasha Palace and Old Bayazıt is well worth the trip. Doğubayazıt is also a great base for climbing Mount Ararat and sits near the Durupınar “Noah’s Ark” site.
Getting to Doğubayazıt
The nearest airport to Doğubayazıt is in Iğdır, about an hour away. Iğdır Airport (IGD) opened in 2012 and has regularly schedule flights to both airports in Istanbul (as of August 2024). A shuttle runs between Doğubayazıt and the airport.
Doğubayazıt is also well connected by bus to major cities in the region. We drove in from Van, which is a little over two hours away.
Getting Around Doğubayazıt
If you don’t have your own car, you can walk or use public transportation to get around town, although there’s really nothing much to see. The real attraction is the Ishak Pasha Palace at Old Bayazıt. You can get there by taxi in less than 15 minutes.
Where to Stay in Doğubayazıt
Good accommodation is quite limited, but we lucked out and found a great place for our stay.
Tehran Boutique Hotel
Tehran Boutique Hotel is located in the center of town, just a block from İnegöl Street. The manager is wonderful and speaks excellent English, and there’s free parking in a garage across the street. The hotel opened in 2015.
Our rooms were clean, comfortable, and spacious. I had a balcony but the views weren’t that great. If there wasn’t a building directly across the way, I would have had a clear view of Mount Ararat.
Breakfast is included in the rate. It’s served in a room on the top floor. There’s a good spread with plenty of options to choose from.
Where to Eat in Doğubayazıt
As with hotels, there aren’t a lot of great choices for food in Doğubayazıt. The hotel manager gave us a few decent choices for dinner, and we stopped into a nicer place outside town for lunch the next day.
Evin Restaurant
Evin Restaurant serves traditional Turkish dishes. It’s located in the heart of town along the pedestrianized İnegöl Street. Service is friendly and attentive, there’s a lot of variety on the menu, and the food is good. I had the ezogelin soup and the iskender kebab and enjoyed my meal.
Ararat Restaurant
For lunch, we stopped at Ararat Restaurant, which is on the road leading to Ishak Pasha Palace. It’s a nice place with a friendly staff and good service. The menu mostly consists of kebabs, soups, a few salads, and sides.
I had a yogurt soup and the mushroom kebab while one of our guests had the eggplant kebab. The kebabs, which were delicious, came with bulgur and vegetables. Everyone was happy with their meals.
The restaurant is attached to a carpet store. Staff made a pretty hard push to get us to visit after lunch. Having sat through enough carpet demonstrations over the years, we decided against it.
İnegöl Street in Doğubayazıt
I’ll be brutally honest. Doğubayazıt is an ugly dusty border town. There’s literally nothing of interest to see in town itself. If you do have extended time to spend there, there are a few pedestrianized blocks of İnegöl Street that are pleasant enough to look at.
İnegöl Street, or Çarşı as the hotel manager called it, is lined with shops, restaurants, cafés, and banks. Chances are, if you’re having a meal in town, it’ll be there. We didn’t spend too much time on the street but it’s by far the most enjoyable and visually pleasing area of Doğubayazıt.
Ishak Pasha Palace
The biggest draw in Doğubayazıt is the Ishak Pasha Palace, located in Old Bayazıt. Construction on the palace started in 1685 under Çolak Abdi Pasha, a local Kurdish lord. Work continued under Mahmud Pasha from 1720 to 1768, and it was finally completed in 1784 by his nephew, Ishak Pasha (d. 1799/1800), who gave the palace his name.
The palace was damaged by an earthquake in 1840 and abandoned for a few years, but then restored over a period of 20 years. It was damaged again during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, and again by the Russians in World War I. The palace was used as a local administrative center after the war and as a military fort until 1937. Major restorations took place in 2004 and again in 2011, and the palace is now open to the public as a museum.
The Ishak Pasha Palace sits on a hill with three steep sides. It combines Ottoman, Persian, and Armenian architectural styles as well as some Baroque and Rococo elements. The complex covers an area of over 7,600 square meters and measures roughly 115 x 50 meters. It contains at least 360 rooms, including two courtyards, a bakery, a dungeon, a hamam, a mosque, a harem section, a selamlık (men’s section), a tomb, a kitchen, service rooms, and stables.
Visiting the Ishak Pasha Palace
The Ishak Pasha Palace is open daily except Mondays. Admission for foreigners is €3 (as of August 2024). There’s a parking lot, café, bathrooms, and gift shop on the hill across the street from the entrance. Check the official website for more info.
1st Courtyard of Ishak Pasha Palace
The 1st Courtyard (I. Avlu) of the palace is entered via a monumental portal with a muqarnas hood. The gate is decorated with beautifully carved Baroque-Rococo motifs. There’s also a room above the portal with views to the exterior of the palace and the courtyard.
The 1st Courtyard is the larger of the two courtyards of the palace. It’s the most incomplete section of the palace, with the rooms that haven’t survived or remain damaged today. The courtyard also lacks the ornate decorations found throughout other parts of the palace.
Stables and Carriage House
Working our way clockwise around the courtyard from the entrance, on the south wall are traces of stables and a carriage house. They weren’t included in the restoration.
Servant’s Quarters
The door on the southwest corner of the 1st Courtyard opens to the space once occupied by the Servant’s Quarters. It consisted of a two-story building sitting atop the store rooms. Each room had two windows on the south side and a stove in the middle. Today, because the building wasn’t reconstructed, there are decent views of the structures on the 2nd Courtyard and some interesting architectural elements, such as scallop shell niches.
Heating Station
On the northwest corner of the 1st Courtyard is what’s believed to be the heating station. The tunnel for much of the palace’s hot and cold water supply passes through the room. According to locals, there was once a copper boiler in the room but it was lost after World War I. Other traces of the heating station were completely lost during restoration.
The Council Hall, mosque, and madrasa, were all heated with steam produced from the heating station. The Harem, however, was heated using a boiler room under the hamam. Furnaces heated other rooms outside the range of the heating station. The pipe system reaches the mosque.
Dungeon
The entrance to the dungeon (zindan) is on the northwest corner of the 1st Courtyard. 21 steep stairs lead to 6 dark cells making up the dungeon.
Each cell has a vaulted ceiling and is lit by a small window on the side of the courtyard. During restoration, no entrance was found to the easternmost cell.
In 1805, Pierre Amédée Jaubert (1779-1847), a French diplomat and advisor to Napoleon, was arrested by the Pasha of Bayazıt while on his way to form an alliance with Qajar Persia. He was imprisoned in that cell for four months and stated that prisoners were lowered into the cell using a rope through a hole in the roof. Jaubert was set free after the death of the Pasha.
Guard Ward
The Guard Ward (Muhafız Koğuşları) sits atop the dungeon. It was built on a rectangular plan to house the palace guards. There are hardly any windows and it was connected to the 1st Courtyard via four doors. The roof of the Guard Ward has collapsed.
Fountain
Finally, on the east wall of the 1st Courtyard next to the entrance portal is an elegant fountain (çeşme) with two taps. According to locals, one tap used to flow with milk and another with water. The fountain still dispenses ice-cold water piped in from the highlands, but the taps aren’t original.
The fountains sits within a niche decorated by plant motifs. Two smaller niches held water bowls. A deep marble trough catches the water, and two stone benches sit on either side of the trough.
2nd Courtyard of Ishak Pasha Palace
The portal to the 2nd Courtyard (II. Avlu) is on the west wall of the 1st Courtyard. It was built in the Gothic style and contains the entrances to the Selamlık and Harem, the most important parts of the palace. The lower section of the portal has a rectangular frame while the top consists of a wide arch designed as a pavilion to view the 1st Courtyard. Both sides are decorated with motifs.
Servants rooms sit just inside the portal on both sides. The tunnel containing the pipes for hot and cold water is accessed through the room on the north side.
Grain Stores
Inside the portal to the 2nd Courtyard, on the left side is a stairway leading down to several rooms believed to be used as grain storage or store rooms.
First is a landing opening to one small store room with a vaulted ceiling. Another shorter stairway to the right leads to a basement with a long corridor.
The corridor connects to several larger rectangular rooms with vaulted ceilings. Some of the ceilings haven’t survived. The westernmost room has another stairway leading up to the 2nd Courtyard.
Tomb
The tomb in the 2nd Courtyard sits against the wall of the mosque. The occupant of the tomb is unknown, but it’s believed to belong to Ishak Pasha (d. 1799/1800) based on an inscription of the date on the entrance.
The octagonal tomb has an entrance with stairs leading down to the burial chamber. None of the graves have survived. There was also a small cemetery next to the tomb. It had a monumental entrance and a fountain, but both are lost.
The inscription on the door to the tomb reads:
Oh! Almighty,
Thou shall make the owner of this place pleased
Thou shall make his afterlife prosperous
Thou shall make his burial place
Like a cheerful heaven, and lighten.
Selamlık of Ishak Pasha Palace
The Selamlık sits on the north side of the 2nd Courtyard. It’s the space where official business was conducted. It’s entered via a Seljuk style portal topped by a muqarnas niche and decorated with Rococo engravings. The portal opens to the Kiosk Room, which contains several niches carved into the walls.
Council Hall
A door on the right side of the Kiosk Room opens to the Council Hall (Divan), where official meetings were held. Important visitors and foreign diplomats were also received there.
The Council Hall is a large rectangular room with windows overlooking the 2nd Courtyard. Above the windows on the lower level are smaller rectangular windows. On the west side of the hall is a cupboard with niches and a place used for making sherbet.
Oriel Room
A door on the north side of the Council Hall leads to the Oriel Room (Cumbalı Oda). This room, which was heavily damaged, features spectacular views of Doğubayazıt and Old Bayazıt.
Notice the wooden carving attached to the exterior wall. It contains the figures of a human topped by a lion and eagle, and once supported the balcony. The human is believed to represent Ishak Pasha, the lion symbolizes power, and the eagle represents supremacy and sovereignty.
Guest Rooms
South of the Oriel Room are a series of three nearly identical guest rooms. Each guest room contains a fireplace flanked by two windows with views of the valley to the north.
Selamlık Rooms
Five Selamlık rooms sit west of the Oriel Room and Kiosk Room. There are three on the north side and two on the south side. They have a similar layout to the guest rooms but with several more niches carved into the walls.
Mosque at Ishak Pasha Palace
The mosque sits at the west end of the Selamlık. It’s on a square plan topped by an onion dome and is twice as high as the rest of the palace.
At the corners of the dome are four small towers topped with domes, and a minaret is at the northwest corner. The drum of the dome contains 32 niches, 8 of which were converted to windows to allow natural light to enter the prayer hall.
The mosque is entered through a portal decorated with stone carvings. Although it’s not an active mosque, visitors are still asked to remove their shoes and wear appropriate clothing. The door opens to the prayer hall.
Some of the features of the prayer hall, which is on the south side of the mosque, are several niches as well as naturalistic tree motifs under the dome.
The north side of the mosque features a square section equal in size to the prayer hall, which is unusual for an Ottoman mosque. It served as both the madrasa and the women’s prayer section. In the center is a mahfil (loge) resting on four columns.
Harem of Ishak Pasha Palace
The Harem is the largest section of the Ishak Pasha Palace. It contained the private living quarters of the pasha, his family, and his concubines. The Harem was once two stories high but the second story has collapsed.
The entrance is through a monumental portal with Rococo decorations and several inscriptions. The portal is topped by a muqarnas niche.
Once inside, there’s a small hall connecting to other rooms of the Harem. To the left are a couple unspecified rooms with deep pits on the north side and fireplaces on the south side.
Kitchen
One of the first rooms of interest in the Harem is the kitchen. It’s on a rectangular plan and the ceiling is supported by two arches. There’s a ventilation shaft in the center between the arches, a fountain, and a boiler stove between the windows.
Hamam
The hamam of Ishak Pasha Palace is next to the kitchen. It features an octagonal dressing room and a square bath. A boiler room covered with a barrel vault heated the bath.
Toilet
Nearby is the only toilet of the palace that has survived in its original form. The room is covered by a barrel vault and has a window on the south side. The toilet is connected to the palace’s sewage system.
Harem Rooms
The Harem rooms sit along an L-shaped corridor running along the north and west sides. The rooms are nearly identical except for the corner rooms. Almost all the rooms have two windows with a fireplace between them. The second floor of harem had the same plan but it has not survived.
Royal Garden
A door on the corridor leads to the Royal Garden. It sits on the west side of the palace behind the Harem rooms. The entrance to the garden is via a simple gate. The garden surrounded three sides of the Harem and was landscaped with flowers and trees. There was also a pool in the middle.
Ceremonial Hall
The Ceremonial Hall is in the middle of Harem and is one of the most spectacular rooms of the palace. It was used for entertainment and feasts on special days, and important family meetings were likely held there. It’s rectangular in shape and is entered through two ornately decorated doors.
The hall is separated into three parts by arches on the east and west sides. Above the windows are inscriptions of Quranic verses and poems praising Ishak Pasha written in Rococo style frames.
Old Bayazıt
After visiting the Ishak Pasha Palace, take time to explore Old Bayazıt, which was the predecessor to Doğubayazıt and an important stop on the Silk Road. The Turkish army destroyed Bayazıt in 1930 during the Ararat Rebellion, a local Kurdish uprising against the Turkish government. The residents built Doğubayazıt in the plains near the old town.
There are only a handful of structures remaining from Old Bayazıt and it doesn’t take long to see everything. Other than that, all that’s left are some foundations of old houses.
Cemetery Mosque
First, opposite the entrance to the Ishak Pasha Palace is the Cemetery Mosque (Mezarlık Mescidi). The Ottoman period mosque was completely rebuilt in 2014 and reopened to worship. It measures 8.95 x 8.95 meters.
Old Bayezid Mosque
Up the road to the northeast, in the shadow of Bayazıt Castle, is the Old Bayezid Mosque (Eski Bayezid Camii). It was built shortly after 1514 when Sultan Selim I passed through Bayazıt with the Ottoman army. The mosque is on a square plan with a single dome.
You can reach it by walking up the path leading to the castle. It was closed when I visited but I was able to peek in the windows.
Bayazıt Castle
Bayazıt Castle (Bayazıt Kalesi) is situated on steep cliffs overlooking Old Bayazıt. It was likely originally built by the Urartians in the 8th century BC. The walls were built with cut stone and repaired during the Seljuk and Ottoman periods.
It’s possible to climb up to the top of the castle but you have to be extremely careful. The walls are crumbling and the path at times is steep and slippery because of the debris. There were a few moments when some of the smaller rocks slid and tumbled down, nearly hitting the people below. We made it up to the middle section but the castle walls extend all the way to the top of the cliff.
From the point we reached, there are incredible views of the Ishak Pasha Palace and the valley to Doğubayazıt. You can even look down and see the surrounding area that once made up Old Bayazıt.
Mosque and Tomb of Ahmed-i Hânî
The final landmark we visited in Old Bayazıt is the mosque and tomb of Kurdish intellectual Ahmed-i Hânî (1650-1707), or Exmedê Xanî in Kurdish. He was born near Hakkâri and traveled Eastern Anatolia and the Middle East studying Ancient Greek and Islamic philosophy, astronomy, poetry, and art. Hânî, an Islamic scholar considered a holy person, is also credited with founding Kurdish nationalism and advocating for an independent Kurdish state.
The tomb and mosque are reached by walking down a short path through a small cemetery. At the end of the path is a structure with three domes. The west wing, with two domes, contains the mosque, while the east wing contains the tomb. The mosque was added some time after the tomb was built.
Prayers were being conducted in the mosque so we only visited the tomb. It features alternating layers of white, brown, and black bricks, both on the exterior and interior walls.
Inside are six wooden sarcophagi including the one belonging to Ahmed-i Hânî. A beautiful chandelier hangs from the dome, and there’s a small library along the wall.
Doğubayazıt City Museum
On the way out of Old Bayazıt, we stopped into the Doğubayazıt City Museum (Doğubayazıt Kent Müzesi), which is on the road back to Doğubayazıt. It consists of two buildings and is typically open daily. Admission is 20₺ per person (as of June 2024) and the Museum Pass Türkiye is not accepted. All information is presented in Turkish.
Old Bayezid House
The first section is the Old Bayezid House (Eski Bayezid Evi), which is a historical and ethnographic museum in a traditional home of the region. The first section on the ground floor contains photos and displays on the history of Old Bayazıt as well as the town’s economic and agricultural industries.
Next is an exhibit on how lavash bread is made. Mannequins demonstrate the process of kneading the dough and how it’s placed into a hole in the ground to bake. This is followed by a small exhibit on the wool industry.
Upstairs is the ethnographic section, where mannequins display the women’s and men’s sections of the homes in Old Bayazıt. One room includes the daily lives of children along with some traditional toys, while another room showed how women prepared for weddings.
The final room in the Old Bayezid House features a few examples of traditional clothing and jewelry worn by the people of the region.
Sheikh Ahmed El-Hani Museum
Next is the Sheikh Ahmed El-Hani Museum (Şeyh Ahmed El-Hani Müzesi), which is supposed to chronicle the life of Ahmed-i Hânî (1650-1707). To be honest, this section of the museum was pointless for the most part. There was no information posted and it consisted of a few displays of mannequins in various scenes.
Scenes included a group of men presumably studying Islamic philosophy with Ahmed-i Hânî at a madrasa; Ahmed-i Hânî teaching young girls; and finally two men playing chess. We got a good laugh at the facial expression on a mannequin of a woman watching the men playing chess.
