East of Diyarbakir

Plains east of Diyarbakir

This section is 149 miles long. I’ll spend about three weeks walking it, probably around the first half of March. The first couple weeks the temperatures will be about 50 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, 30 at night (10 to -1 degrees Celsius). My elevation will range from 2000 to 3000 feet.

This is a fairly sparsely-populated section, mostly just mile after mile of rolling plains, some irrigated and some not, with some villages scattered about. On the map it looks like there’s a lot of agriculture for the 50 miles east of Diyarbakir, a big green spot irrigated by waters from the Tigris and Batman rivers.

Yes, you heard correctly, Batman. In eastern Turkey there is an entire province and city named Batman. Batman is not a large province — it will take me all of about 3 days to walk across Batman.

Silvan from the hills

Silvan from the hills

Malabadi Koprusu

Malabadi Bridge near the Batman Dam

There isn’t much in the way of cities in these parts. For the three weeks between Diyarbakir, where the leg begins, and Tatvan, where it ends on the shores of Lake Van, the largest city I’ll pass through is Silvan, population 42,000, about a week out of Diyarbakir.

Silvan used to be a more bustling place than it is now. It is one of two possible sites of the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Armenia. From its heyday as capital of an entire kingdom (or at least a possible one of them), the city began its decline, getting sacked by the Romans, taken over by the Byzantines, and passing through the hands of Arabs. By the 12th century AD it was merely a shell of its former self.

About 12 miles east of Silvan I’ll cross the Malabadi Bridge. The Malabadi bridge is less than a half mile downstream from the Batman Dam. The Malabadi bridge was built in the 12th century AD, but in the 1950s a more modern bridge bypassing it was built a few feet upstream.

Bitlis

Bitlis, William Saroyan's parents' hometown

Iran on roadsigns

Iran starts showing up on roadsigns

Mt. Nemrut's crater lake

Nemrut's crater lake

View of Tatvan with Lake Van on left

Tatvan, on the western shore of Lake Van

A note for the folks in my old stomping grounds near Fresno, California: about 70 miles east of the Malabadi bridge I’ll pass through the village of Bitlis. Bitlis is the hometown of William Saroyan’s parents, who moved to Fresno from Bitlis. Bitlis the village sits on Bitlis the river. Bitlis the river is a tributary to the Tigris.

(If you’re not from the Fresno area, William Saroyan was an Armenian-American author who died in 1981. He’s a local hero in the Fresno area.)

In the last week of this leg I will climb onto a higher plateau at about 6000 feet, where I will find Lake Van. If it’s a light snow year, the snow will have cleared from the plateau by the time I get there, at least at the road elevations.

If it’s a heavier snow year however, there might still be lots of snow on the road. If that’s the case, I may drag my feet (figuratively) on the Euphrates-Tigris leg, so I arrive at Lake Van later than planned.

Near this last section of the road to Lake Van is the Mount Nemrut volcano. Mount Nemrut is 10,007 feet (3050 meters) high. The volcano hasn’t erupted in over 400 years, but it isn’t extinct — low-level volcanic activity keeps the crater’s lake really warm, about 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees Celsius).

By the way, this Mount Nemrut is not the same as the more famous Mount Nemrut 200 miles to the west near Adiyaman. That Mount Nemrut is the one with the statues of heads with cone hats, photos of which adorn the covers of many travel books.

At the foot of the Nemrut volcano, and marking the end of this leg, is Tatvan, a city of about 96,000 people. Tatvan rests at the edge of the Armenian Highland plateau, the higher plateau I’ll be on for the last leg of this journey. Lake Van is on this plateau, as is the border with Iran. I’ll be writing about that section, the walk’s final leg, in the next installment.