Akdamar Island

Akdamar is a small rocky island in Lake Van, in eastern Turkey, a short boat ride from the southern shore. On it stands the Armenian Cathedral of the Holy Cross, built between 915 and 921 for Gagik I Artsruni, king of Vaspurakan, the Armenian kingdom centred on the lake. The architect is recorded as Manuel. The church was the centrepiece of a royal residence and later the seat of a Catholicos, a senior Armenian church leader.

The church is compact, built of pinkish volcanic stone in a cross-shaped plan under a conical dome. What makes it exceptional is the carving on its outer walls. Bands of relief wrap around the building: scenes from the Bible, among them Adam and Eve, David and Goliath, Jonah and the whale, and Abraham with Isaac, alongside saints, animals, vines and a figure of King Gagik himself offering a model of the church to Christ.

After long neglect, the church was restored by the Turkish state and reopened as a museum in 2007, and since 2010 an annual liturgy has been permitted there. Visitors land on the jetty and climb among almond trees to the church, and the views across the lake to the mountains, with snow-capped Süphan on the north shore, are part of the experience. The reliefs repay slow looking: walk round the building twice, once for the stories and once for the animals.