Taşlıçay
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Taşlıçay is a town and district of Ağrı Province in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. It is located in the valley of the Murat River on the road from the city of Ağrı to Doğubeyazıt and Turkey's border with Iran. It covers an area of 798 km², and the altitude is 1,660 m. Population (2000) is 21,859 of which 5,106 live in the town of Taşlıçay and the remainder on the surrounding countryside.
Taşlıçay is surrounded by high mountains (2,000 m plus), these include; to the north Perili, Balıkgölü 3,159 m and Ziyarettepe 1,800 m of the South Aras range; and to the south the Aladağ (including Muratbaşı (Koçbaşı) (3,510 m) and Kandil 2,750 m.
[edit] History
A burial mound (höyük) to the south of Taşlıçay and numerous other ruins in the district indicate this long and varied history. There is an Urartu temple on the hill above the village of Taşteker, and an Armenian monastery.
[edit] Taşlıçay today
The people live by farming, mainly raising livestock. Although the mountainsides cannot be farmed the land in the valley is fertile, watered in the spring melt by streams running into the Murat, and is used for growing beet and grains. Summers are hot, winters are cold and snowy (permanent snow lies above 2,700). In summer the villagers move up the mountainside to graze animals in high meadow, including on the banks of Lake Balık (which contains trout and carp}.
The population includes a community of Shiites (rare in mainly Sunni Turkey).[1]
[edit] References
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