Ishak Pasha Palace - Turkey

A few days ago I traveled to Bordeaux, France and of course I bought some cards there. However, most of the cards I bought weren't french. On my 1st day in Bordeaux I was lucky to find a flea market and a particular stand with boxes and boxes of old cards. I bought a few old french cards, mostly of castles and churches but the real treasure were a collection of cards of the world with cards from different countries, some of them quite rare, such as Yemen, Qatar, Burkina Faso, Georgia, Ecuador, Guinea, etc. In the next days I'll share a few that I like the most. I'll start with this one from Turkey. 

 

This card deserves my attention not only because it depicts a beautiful palace but also because Ishak Pasha in on the UNESCO Tentative list. Some of the cards are from UNESCO sites but I already had all of them. Getting sites on the Tentative list is almost as good as getting sites that already are on the WHS list. 

The small city of Doğubeyazıt, situated on the Silk Route near the Iranian frontier, is home to one of the finest examples of Ottoman palace architecture. The palace is such a unique Ottoman piece of architecture because it borrows heavily from Anatolian, Persian and North Mesopotamian styles and traditions. It fuses all of them together in a mesmerizing fashion that is also influenced largely by Seljuk architecture.

 

It stands on a vast platform of 7,600 square meters (81,805 square feet), near the Iranian frontier of the Ottoman Empire, and as such its high elevation offers a unique strategic importance to the Empire.
The construction of the palace began in 1685 by Çolak Abdi Pasha. The completion of it took 99 years and was finally finished in 1784 by Ishak Pasha, a descendant of Çolak Abdi Pasha.
The palace was damaged by an earthquake in 1840 and for some time abandoned, but partly restored over the next 20 years. It was again damaged during the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878). The structure was later used by Russians and during World War I when it was damaged by gunfire.

Later, the palace was used as the administrative centre for the area, and later as a military fort until 1937. Additional damage was caused later when stone from the building was taken for use to build new homes. 

In 2000, the palace was added to the UNESCO Tentative List of World Heritage Sites.