Ishak Pasa Palace

image via agt.si.edu

The east is calling me.

First Gobeklitepe, then Zeugma, and now Ishak Pasa Palace. This place looks liked it dropped right out of a fantasy novel. No?

Ishak Pasa Palace (circa 1685) seems a pretty nice pied-à-terre for Sybil (my MC), especially since the palace is gorgeous and waaaaay out in Doğubeyazıt. Few tourists find there way out there these days, but once upon a time, the palace was strategically situated on an important trade route. What do you know? Djinn love that abandoned palace thing.

image via wikipedia

I know Sybil would enjoy exploring the compound - because that's what the palace really is - a bunch of buildings connected with halls. There's a mosque in the middle and a harem. Plenty of little nooks and carved out niches to discover or hide in...

Outside there are jagged mountains, bare plains, a town: all the stuff I need for an interesting setting.

BUT I still have work to do on the first ms and a second ms I'm planning for NaNoWriMo is set up in the forests of Trabzon. Guess I'll just have to let this idea roll around and gather some cobwebs in my head. Maybe the next time I think of the palace, I'll know exactly how to use it.