Şatak

Şatak lies southeast of Lake Van, in a landscape of deep valleys and oak-covered mountains. Its streams descend through a district long inhabited by Armenian and Kurdish communities, where churches and stone bridges mark the routes between scattered settlements. The area belonged to the Armenian kingdom of Vaspurakan and later came under the lords of Hakkari. In 1548 it passed into the Ottoman realm; monasteries continued to stand among the surrounding villages.