Arak Monastery, also known as the Arak church, stands on a summit on the eastern flank of the Karaçavuş Mountains, ground now used as summer pasture. At the foot of the summit lies the village of Arak, today called Kepenek, which gave the building its name; the village is twelve kilometres from Muş.
Arak means wine in Persian, and Türkiye's tourism agency reads the name as evidence that grapes were kept in the village and their juice pressed there.
The building stands on open ground, and a large bell tower rises some 200 to 250 metres away from it. Its workmanship and materials follow Roman practice.
The region was fought over by Rome and the Sasanians and lay under Sasanian rule for some four centuries, from AD 226 to 624. Local tradition holds that the Sasanians commissioned Roman architects and craftsmen to raise the monastery and then presented it to the Romans as a gift, a gesture at once of goodwill and of power.
Getting there
- Access
- In Arak village, also called Kepenek, about twelve kilometres from central Muş.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Muş as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -6.8 °C in January to 25.1 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in June and September; rainfall is heaviest in March (109 mm) and lightest in August (6 mm). Long-term means for 1964-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
