I am heading further down towards the Southeast region of Turkey
where the altitude starts to decrease. My exploration began in the exquisite lake Van
where the church of the Holy Cross is sat on tiny offshore reefs.
Eastern Turkey is an immensely rewarding place to travel
despite the long distances, outside of the major centers, and lack of creature comforts.
Good afternoon everyone, welcome back to another video!
I am currently in Van province located in the Eastern part of Turkey.
And the Van province itself is quite famous for the Lake Van, as you can see behind me
because this is the biggest lake in Turkey if I'm not mistaken.
And they have quite high salinity which means that
the salt content of the lake is quite high because there is very little evaporation.
The largest lake in Turkey and the Armenian highlands
receives water from many small streams from the surrounding mountains.
Primarily tectonic lake four more than 600.000 years ago,
its high salinity prevents it from freezing at such times.
The island itself is quite small right, but it's in the outskirts of Van city.
To get here you have to go to Gevas by taking public transportation and take
a small boat I think that costs 20 TL, but if there are not enough
passengers, you can actually rent a boat for 250 TL ($36) and can share that with other people.
If you can see the limestone cliff behind me, just behind that church,
rises above 80 meters above sea level.
The lake itself is at quite a high altitude of 16-1700 meters.
It's incredible! That's why you can easily see the spread out of the mountains.
The cathedral of the Holy Cross, or alternatively known as Akdamar Kilisesi
in Turkish, was built in 921AD depicting the marvels of Armenian architecture.
The unique importance of the church comes from the extensive array of bas-relief
carving of mostly biblical scenes that adorn its external walls.
Behind me is the remaining and well preserved
of the Armenian church, because the Van provinces itself has a long history.
This is one of the examples of what the building used to look like, and it's magnificent, isn't it?
Wow, I am inside of the church itself this is the 10th-century church.
The frescos are still well preserved,
it's incredible! Look at the dome!
It's incredibly tranquil, it's quiet.
You can just hear the very calm water as well as the birds chirping around flying over or even
if you get lucky you can see some rabbits! I think this is quite an underrated place, right?
I have always craved authentic travel experiences in more rural areas.
After reaching out to many locals,
I managed to get a recommendation to visit Kurdish oldest village in Bitlis province.
Hello, good afternoon! It's been an almost entire day, the journey of going to this
very old village the Kurdish the oldest village.
And I actually have been so lucky to be able to even be here in the first place.
So I'll be staying in this particular village tonight until tomorrow, and I just flew the drone.
I think everyone got so excited, so people came out of their house!
Abdullah biggest thank you to Abdullah.
You're very welcome! Anytime, more than welcome.
You are a guest here so it's very important in our culture to take care take care of the guest.
Yeah, also Mehmet right there, a science teacher also a photographer.
Welcome to the lovely house of one of the family. I have no idea where I am, in all honesty,
but I am just so humbled, so lucky to be able to stay for one night with this particular family.
Say hi! Hello, so this is Barvil.
This is Husna? Yes?
Ferat
Ferat?
And they are serving me walnuts with tea and with all the kids.
Thank you! You're welcome.
I have been actually giving Husnal the shawl, the perfume, and the jewelry
so that now she can dress up.
çok güzel (so beautiful in Turkish)
Good morning! Günaydın
So the girls and I were sleeping in this room last night. And
it was quite cold but I was warm enough to be able to sleep.
Today we are going to see the village and hopefully, we are able to see
other locals and whatnot and Barvil will help me out to explore.
So this is the house that I was staying in last night and the kids are just following me around!
I was told that this is the oldest village of, one of the oldest village of Kurdish people.
And you see the houses are made of stones.
It's very a rustic feeling and it's very tranquil, located so remote deep in the mountain I don't
even like I have no internet connections I can't really tell you where I am exactly.
it looks like that this is the place where they are keeping their animals
and I'm assuming that they will use the milk or whatever to use to be used for cheese.
and this is how we get to the particular place for them to keep the animals.
As you can see, houses here are looking like they're stacked one to the other.
There are plenty of alleyways just to get from one house to the other.
I can't help right inviting unexpectedly all of the kids in this village
because they're just so curious about who is this traveler coming
all the way and so I can't really like shoo them away because they will follow every step I do!
so I was just told that I'm trying not to fall, the village name is Kuch.
I think the translation of that village, the name of the village is long rock if I'm not mistaken?
If you can see how much time that it's like we're taking back because of the looks of the houses
and the slow time. I feel like the time here
is slowing down so much which is great
if you see stack of stems of trees and everything,
I think I assume that they are using it for the winter heating system.
Usually inside of the house, the heating system is rather still traditional and you would burn the
woods and everything.
I am a bit distracted right, if I'm being honest because
all the kids are following me every movement that I do I can't really think
because they are here, they are there, they are everywhere.
Oh oh yes it's nice just like being able to see the locals right here, and just like enjoying time
and also appreciating the neighbors talking to one another.
It looks like what's behind me is rather the place where they would use
the water and the surrounding area to wash the carpet.
I see a carpet underneath the water but I don't know if that's what they're supposed to be doing.
Kurds or Kurdish are of Indo-European descent and are one of the indigenous
peoples of the Mesopotamian plains and highlands.
This area spans throughout Southeastern Turkey, Northwest Iran, Northern Iraq, and Northern Syria.
So I am here in the place where they freshly make the bread from scratch.
They have been so kind to allow me to film here a little bit and the process of making the bread.
I think you are ought to be physically active in order for you to be able to
explore this particular Kuch village, because
there are plenty of stacks of stones as the stairs.
This is the common living area of the house that I was staying at last night and during this winter
time like this it gets colder for sure, so we would be staying in one particular room that has
a bit more of a hitting situation. So it gets warmer and much more comfortable!
As you open the window, you get to see this, just all around
And also the kids, can you see?
I suppose this is the attic room where they storage, they put everything as storage room
So these are selections of not selections but collections of walnuts that I think they have
gathered as soon as the walnuts have fallen off the tree and usually serve during tea
tea break or probably after a meal.
This is Husna preparing tea.
Çay, okay? Yes!
Before leaving Husna prepared a local dish for the family.
This was my last meal before setting off to the next destination.
This is the bread that we saw in the making
and this is the lunch selection
Beef and bean stew, pilaf rice, and some yogurt.
That's pretty much about it guys for today's episode, a mix of my own experience in the Van province
as well as in a remote village known as Kuch,
one of the oldest Kurdish villages in the Southeastern part of Anatolia or Turkey.
This idea came out very last minute because I've always tried to my tried my best to find authentic
experiences and sometimes I don't have enough contacts or appropriate contacts
that allow me to have that experiences if that makes sense?
so this is very very unexpected because one contact led to another and led to another and led to another and led to this village
It humbles as well, a sense of humility as well as humanity showcase through these experiences
exchanged between foreigners between locals despite the language barriers.
I hope that this kind of experience also teaches you how to try to seek that kind of experience.
Thank you so much again for watching!
If you really like this kind of video you want to support my work please check out my Patreon link down in the description below.
That's where I post up to date, that's where I post every special content, that I don't post anywhere else.
Thank you so much again, see you next time bye!
Bye, thank you so much!
Very, very very happy!
A goodbye hug and all the kids are here to say goodbye pretty much!
Güle güle (goodbye in Turkish)