The Arek monastery stands at Eskikavak village in the Kığı district of Bingöl. What survives is partial: the complex was built on sloping ground on an east-west axis, measuring about 33 by 24 metres, entered from the north, and while the church within it stands, the buildings to its south and west are largely collapsed.
The church is nearly square, about 16 by 16 metres, built of regular cut stone under a barrel vault, divided into three aisles by four freestanding columns, with a small rectangular narthex in front. The carving is worth looking for. In the large niche just to the right of the entrance and in the north wall is a cross with volutes, framed by two rows of contour lines filled with zigzags. The moulding above the door carries stone ornament in the form of drops and closed tulips. Ten decorative wall piers are used on the walls. The round-arched door below the window on the east is understood to have led through to the buildings on the south side, most of which have now gone.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Bingöl as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -2.1 °C in January to 26.7 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June and September; rainfall is heaviest in January (137 mm) and lightest in August (4 mm). Long-term means for 1961-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
