Somehow our journey took us far into the province of Malatya in Eastern Anatolia, and one day some newly made Turkish acquaintances decided to show us the surrounding beauty of the vast, endless landscapes and wide fields of this region. From the main Hekimhan yolu highway, a small branch road led off toward the hills, where a wonderful view opened up over nearby villages and estates, rivers, and green pastures everywhere.
Based on the limited information I could find on the map—since this area is very poorly documented and has almost no named locations — the place is surrounded by the villages of Taşoluk and Akmagara, and within this zone there are many local pastoral highlands without official toponymy.So the closest way to describe the hill we were taken to by our acquaintances would be to say it is part of the foothills of the Zurbahan mountain system — a mountainous landscape centered around the iconic peak of the region.
For generations, these highlands have served shepherds and their flocks during seasonal migrations to high-altitude yaylas. It was very fortunate that our acquaintances had a car, because the road through these fields was extremely rough and full of potholes, and we were shaking in that sedan like we were in a tractor, thinking it might fall apart at any moment. I previously wrote an article about an abandoned school from earlier times, which is located on one of the hills in this area.
This time we went further, driving quite deep—so far, in fact, that when I later looked at the map it felt like we had entered some kind of abyss, a completely unnamed and unknown place, as if a torn-out piece of the map with no official information at all.The weather was clear, the mountain looked truly powerful, I was taking photos, and beautiful clouds were hanging over the peak—it looked absolutely stunning.
At first, we parked near a ruined house, and our guide shared a lot of historical information about the place, explaining that its history is closely tied to shepherding and livestock grazing. However, he explained it in Turkish, and I could not fully understand, so I also searched for information online. This rural area is characterized by a landscape of rocky plateaus, dry valleys, and ancient pastoral routes.
For centuries, the local economy has largely depended on sheep and goat herding. Shepherds used seasonal structures called “ağıl”—pastoral shelters built from local materials such as volcanic stone, raw wood, and packed earth. These structures were often simple, adapted to the harsh mountain climate, and designed to protect both flocks and shepherds during grazing periods.
The ruins visible in the fields in the photos are evidence of this ancient pastoral activity. The walls were typically built from dry stone or rudimentary mortar, and the roofs used local timber covered with earth. This type of vernacular architecture was common in the highlands of Eastern Anatolia.
The Hekimhan region is also known for its mountainous terrain and its history connected to ancient routes linking Malatya with Sivas. The district has several historical monuments dating back to the Seljuk and Ottoman periods. Today, many of these pastoral areas are abandoned. The gradual decline of traditional livestock farming, economic changes, and shifts in rural policy have led part of the population to move to cities.
The old shepherd shelters and once-thriving pastures remain silent traces of a pastoral life that once flourished in the mountains of Hekimhan.
As we went higher, we also saw a secluded, solitary cemetery that harmonized beautifully with the local flora—flowers and various thorny shrubs.
I think there were more than ten graves, and our attention was drawn to the drawings on the gravestones. At first, I thought it was an ancient cemetery, but according to the information, it is probably more modern, although the site itself may be quite old as a traditional burial place for shepherds.
The gravestones feature a stylized tulip motif—a symbol widely used in Ottoman and Anatolian culture. The tulip represents both the fleeting beauty of life and spiritual purity, belief in resurrection, and in some Sufi traditions it also symbolizes divine unity. In short, it is a drawn flower of memory.