Ağrı

Last update September 26, 2026

The reason most people reach Ağrı is so they can see the mountain; Ağrı Dağı, which is known as Mount Ararat outside Turkey, rises above 5,100 meters and is situated alone on the plain with no nearby peaks to share the view. Although some come because of the connection with Noah’s Ark, you don’t have to take a religious view to feel small when standing beneath it—the mountain’s scale produces that effect all by itself.

Stay in Doğubayazıt rather than in Ağrı city since it is a dusty border town close to Iran, more rugged than most tourist destinations, and it puts you near both the mountain and the Ishak Pasha Palace. The palace was constructed in the late 1600s and 1700s by a Kurdish dynasty and combines Ottoman, Persian and Armenian architectural styles in one hilltop complex which appears to be both a fortress and a mosque. Visit early on because the light reflects better on the stone and the tour buses have not yet arrived.

Getting to the top of Ararat requires careful planning since the route is close to the Iranian border and thus you’ll need a permit as well as a licensed guide; the climb takes between two and three days with one night spent camping on the slope. However, if you find that’s too much for you, there are shorter guided treks that cover the lower parts and yet still give you a genuine feeling of just how enormous the mountain really is when seen up close, something that the view from town does not fully show.

It is in eastern Turkey and the pace there is different from that of the coastal areas. The winters last for a long time and are cold, the hotels and restaurants are simple, and Kurdish is spoken just as often as Turkish on the streets. Buses connect Ağrı with Van and Kars, and it is more reasonable to combine all three places into a single longer journey than to visit Ağrı by itself. The towns aren’t situated close enough to the rest of the country to make a short detour worthwhile.