The Historic Murat Bridge
/ By Josh
With legends of gold hidden inside, the Historic Murat Bridge is an 800-year-old bridge built across the Murat River as it winds its way through the Muş plain.
Well off the beaten path the province of Muş (pronounced Moosh) is something of a touristic backwater in Turkey’s east. But just because it’s often overlooked doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of reasons to visit.
The fertile valleys of Muş, especially the Murat and Karasu rivers wich flow on into the Euphrates, have attracted numerous settlements from the Neolithic on into the Bronze age. Sitting near the junction between East and West, the territory and its local populations were controlled by the major powers of the time. In the Iron Age, Muş was part of the Urartian kingdom which ruled from Tushpa in what is now Van. Persians had their influence over the territory, the Romans and later the Byzantines controlled it for a time as well. The Armenian culture which grew out of the Uratian, especially left its mark on the landscape in the Medieval period, building a number of great monasteries in the mountains.
The history of Muş became especially important to world history in the 11th century when the Seljuks defeated the Byzantines at the battle of Manzikert, or Malazgirt which opened the way to Turkish settlement all the way into Europe over the following centuries, and shaped the history and culture of Eastern Europe and North Africa up to the 19th century.
The mountains and lakes of the north and the history of Muş make it well worth visiting for the more intrepid traveller.
It’s not exactly clear where the name Muş comes from or what it means. Some theorize that it comes from the Armenian word for marsh, and others that it comes from the names of other ancient peoples that lived in the region. A much more interesting explanation comes from a legend relayed by Evliya Çelebi, a 17th century Ottoman explorer. According to the legend Nemrut (the Biblical character Nimrod) sent a giant mouse to destroy the city and so the city was named “Moosh” which is the Persian word for mouse.
At 1300 meters above sea level and surrounded by mountains Muş has a continental climate with cold winters and hot dry summers.