This open-air museum of ram-headed gravestones is in the Karakoyunlu district, fifteen kilometres northeast of İğdır. The stones, found in the cemeteries of Karakoyunlu and Yayci village on the İğdır plain, date from the period of the Karakoyunlu, who left a lasting mark of settled civilisation here.
They were set up over the graves of men held to be brave and heroic and over those of people who died young. The custom came to the Karakoyunlu, a nomadic people whose economy rested entirely on stockbreeding, from central Asian Turkish culture. The stones are made of the black basalt of Mount Ararat, and only a few of them have survived to be brought under protection.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Iğdır as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -3.2 °C in January to 26 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June and September; rainfall is heaviest in May (48 mm) and lightest in August (9 mm). Long-term means for 1940-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
