A suitable Racecourse for Climbing "Mount Suphan"

Suphan Dagi (Mount Süphan), an extinct volcano, is the third highest mountain in Turkey. It is located just north of Lake Van, Turkey's largest lake. The volcano's summit holds a snow-filled crater, but is generally broad and rugged from eons of erosion. The slopes, however, have retained much of their conal form, making the ascent of Suphan Dagi a straightforward one. 

                                             Turkish Doner Kebab

Doner kebab (Turkish: döner kebabı) is a Turkish dish made of roasted meat cooked on a vertical spit. It consists of shaved lamb, goat, pork, chicken, turkey, beef, or mixed meats roasted on a spit. Less common alternatives include fish and sausage. It is often served wrapped in a flatbread such as a pita or tortilla, and is a common fast food item in The Middle East the Caucauses, North America and Australia.

In a prepared dish, seasoned meat is stacked on a vertical spit in the shape of an inverted cone. It is turned slowly, cooking against a vertical rotisserie. A tomato, onion or pineapple may be placed at the top of the stack for additional flavouring. The meat is cooked by charcoal, wood, cast iron, electric, or gas burner. If the meat is not fatty enough, strips of fat are added so that the roasting meat remains always moist and crisp. The rate of roasting can be adjusted by varying the strength of the heat and the distance between the heat and the meat, allowing the cook to adjust to varying rates of consumption. The outside of the meat is sliced vertically in thin, crisp shavings when done. While cooking, the meat is shaved off the stack with a large knife, an electric knife or a small circular saw, dropping to a circular tray below to be retrieved.

Before taking its modern form, as mentioned in Ottoman travel books of the 18th century, the doner used to be a horizontal stack of meat rather than vertical, probably sharing common ancestors with the Cağ Kebabı of the Eastern Turkish province of Erzurum.

In his own family biography, İskender Efendi of 19th century Bursa writes that "he and his grandfather had the idea of roasting the lamb vertically rather than horizontally, and invented for that purpose a vertical mangal". With time, the meat took a different marinade, got leaner, and eventually took its modern shape. The Greek gyro, along with the similar Middle Eastern shawarma and Mexican tacos al pastor, are derived from this dish. There are several stories regarding the origins of gyros in Greece: One says that the first "gyrádiko" was "Giorgos" who brought gyros to Thessaloniki in 1900; another legend from a meat production company states that döner was first introduced in the 1950s in Piraeus by a cook from Istanbul.