Turkey
Barhal Valley
10th-century Georgian churches stand forgotten in steep valleys where the road ends and peaks begin.
The road narrows, bends, and finally gives out. Beyond the last hamlet, only footpaths continue upward into the Kaçkar range, where 10th-century Georgian church domes break above the tree line like stone sentinels. The valley is quiet in a way modern Turkey rarely is: no traffic, no construction, just the river cutting through granite below.
Barhal Valley, in Artvin province, lies within reach of three largely unrestored medieval Georgian churches, Barhal, Dörtkilise near Tekkale and İşhan, survivors of the Kingdom of Tao-Klarjeti. The tarmac gives out beyond Barhal village and the road ends for good at the last hamlet of Olgunlar; beyond, the trails belong to herders and trekkers heading into the high Kaçkars. The dams ended the legendary long Çoruh rafting runs, but the Barhal tributary still gives a roughly 22-kilometre Class III-IV route from late spring into summer. Village guesthouses serve Black Sea breakfasts of muhlama pulled molten from copper pans, with dark karakovan honey on everything.
Solo
End-of-the-road solitude with purpose: sketch medieval churches, hike into the high Kaçkars, and eat pension dinners with families who rarely see outsiders.
Couple
A valley with no agenda. Walk to forgotten churches in the morning, sit by the river in the afternoon, and let the pace of Barhal set itself.
- The churches of Barhal, Dörtkilise and İşhan, 10th-century survivors of the Kingdom of Tao-Klarjeti, stand largely unrestored and unvisited.
- The tarmac gives out beyond Barhal village and the road ends for good at the last hamlet of Olgunlar.
- The Barhal tributary still runs a roughly 22-kilometre Class III-IV rafting route from late spring into summer.
- Village guesthouses serve Black Sea breakfasts of muhlama, cornmeal and cheese pulled from copper pans.
Puçuko, stringless beans dried in the sun then cooked through winter with bulgur and paste.
Çoban ketesi, a yeasted pastry filled with cream and cornflour, the shepherd's kete.
Pitões das Júnias
Portugal
A monastery abandoned to wolves and rain crumbles beside a waterfall at the road's end.
Revash
Peru
Miniature painted houses for the dead, set into a cliff above swirling cloud forest.
Pare Mountains
Tanzania
Irrigation channels cut centuries ago still water the terraces below.
Amasya
Turkey
Ottoman mansions reflected in a narrow river gorge, Pontic rock tombs carved into the cliff above.
Sagalassos
Turkey
A Roman city at 1,500 metres still being excavated, its monumental fountain reconstructed and flowing again.
Kars
Turkey
Russian-grid streets and crumbling art nouveau facades in a frontier city where winter means minus thirty.
Giresun Island
Turkey
The eastern Black Sea's only island, its Hellenistic temple foundations sleeping beneath hazelnut trees.