On a high plateau with commanding views over the old Silk Road, the magnificent red palace stronghold seems to come out of the blue. It was completed by an Ottoman governor in the late 18th century, it covers 7,500 sq metres and is considered a high point of late Ottoman architecture, though it suffered after Ottoman and Russian troops were billeted here. Its 366 rooms include a 14-bedroom harem and there is a small mosque, with large elegant outer prayer, borne on gently swelling columns, as well as a magnificent ceremonial hall. The cover story of Cornucopia 58 describes the building and the area in a 24-page article with photographs by Brian McKee, the last of his articles on Eastern Anatolia for Cornucopia. For more information about this fascinating building, readers of Turkish should read Serap Bulat’s book Doğubayazıt: İshak Paşa Sarayı