Setting for the Turkish film Vizontele Population: 10,500
On the way from Akdamar island to Van you might want to pause briefly in Gevaş, once the Armenian settlement of Vosdan and a place that once exceeded in size even the better-known one on the island. Looming over it is Artos Dağı (Cadır Dağı, 3,515m), a dormant volcano.
In 2001 Gevaş scored cinematic fame standing in for Hakkari in Vizontele, a smash-hit film about the arrival of television in rural Turkey.
Around town
There’s a superb kümbet (circular tomb) in the overgrown cemetery beside the school. Built of a particularly beautiful beige stone, it was erected in 1358 for Halime Hatun, a princess of the Karakoyunlu (Black Sheep) family who’d married the Kurdish emir of Hakkari, at that time the ruler of this area.
A sign by the gate directs visitors across the cemetery to a 14th or 15th-century mosque built for İzzetin Şir, a judge in Van and Hakkari. Unfortunately, heavy-handed restoration has robbed the building of what must once have been considerable charm.
Transport info
Regular dolmuşes from Van serve Gevaş with less frequent connections on to the harbour at Akdamar. They pass through Edremit on the way if you want to hop out and grab something to eat.
