The Diyadin Hot Springs

About five to seven kilometres from the centre of Diyadin district, the ground gives way to a scattering of thermal sources that the local population calls 'çermik' — old Anatolian for a healing spring. The cluster is broken into separate named springs set 500 to 1,000 metres apart across rough, spring-fed terrain: Yılanlı at the centre, Köprü to its north-west, and Davut to the north-east, close to the settlement of Kaplıca itself. The Murat River running through the area adds a green ribbon of scenery to an otherwise stark highland landscape at roughly 1,900 metres above sea level.↗↗↗

The water is the reason people come. Analyses describe it as rich in calcium, bicarbonate, sulphate, chloride, sulphur and dissolved carbon dioxide, with a total mineralisation that the provincial authorities note as therapeutically significant. Source temperatures are reported across a broad range — hot feeds measured around 70–78°C at the springhead, while the bathing pools settle into a more soakable 35–60°C depending on the source. At the Köprü spring, the escaping water has left mineral crusts and pale travertine mounds over the ground, formations compared by local guides to the terraces of Pamukkale.↗

Davut and its neighbours

The Davut spring — Davut Çermiği — takes its name from the village beside it and is described by the Diyadin municipality as the busiest and most visited of the sources, especially in the summer months when people arrive from neighbouring provinces for multi-day cures. Its water is sulphurous and heavily mineralised, housed in a simple pool fed straight from the source, with the building split into separate sections for women and men. A long-standing local practice is to gather the mineral-rich mud that seeps up nearby, smear it on aching joints, let it dry in the sun, then rinse off in the spring.↗↗

A short walk away, the Yılanlı spring is reckoned the most healing of the group and is the one most developed, enclosed in a building right on the Murat's edge with cooler, gentler water. Köprü, with its travertine terraces and open-air pools, lies to the north-west. Together the springs give the Kaplıca area a layered, village-spa feel — part natural phenomenon, part communal bathing tradition — quite different from the polished thermal resorts of western Turkey.↗↗

Why the waters are valued

Official descriptions from the Ağrı provincial authorities list the springs' traditional uses for skin conditions, rheumatism, nerve and neurological complaints, women's ailments, joint and arthritic problems, sciatica and metabolic disorders — the same indications repeated across the municipal and district sources. Whether one travels for a prescribed cure or simply for the experience of an open landscape and steaming water, the reputation rests on the high sulphur and carbon-dioxide content of the flow. The seasonal rhythm is unmistakable: the visitor tide swells in June and runs through August, while nearby villagers continue to make use of the springs year-round.↗↗↗

Getting there and around

The springs lie in the south-east of Ağrı province, about 60 km from the provincial capital and around 55 km from Erzurum, with the Diyadin district centre set some 7 km off the E80 Erzurum–Doğubayazıt (Iran transit) highway. The nearest airport is Ağrı, roughly 70 km away. Once at the cluster, the named springs are spread across open ground, so walking or short local transfers between Davut, Yılanlı and Köprü is part of the visit. Accommodation ranges from simple poolside facilities and guesthouses to larger thermal-hotel operations at the Davut end of the area; in the busy summer season camping in tents is a well-traditional option here.↗↗↗