Turkey's Most Extraordinary Routes — Explored & Shared

The Ancient Silk Road
Kars to Doğubeyazıt

I first walked this corridor in early autumn, when the highlands of northeastern Anatolia turn amber and the silence feels ancient. This is not a trail for those chasing comfort — it is a pilgrimage through the bones of history. From the brooding medieval citadel of Kars, you follow ghost roads once trodden by caravans carrying silk, spice, and stories across continents. The land shifts dramatically: open steppe gives way to volcanic rock, then suddenly the silhouette of Ağrı Dağı — Ararat — rises above everything, sacred and improbable. Every village along this route holds a fragment of a civilization that outlasted empires. I come back here whenever I need reminding why I do this.

— Hikmet Korkmaz