Mount Cilo

Mount Cilo is the second highest mountain in Turkey after Greater Mount Ararat. Its highest summit Reşko, also known as Gelyaşin or Uludoruk, is high and lies in the Hakkâri Dağları/Mountains, located in the East Taurus, in the district of Yüksekova of the Hakkâri Province in southeasternmost part of Turkey in East Anatolia region.

Description

The craggy massif Mount Cilo is long and forms the western part of the Hakkari Cilo-Sat Mountains [National Park] which was established in 2020. The mountains are characterized by an extremely rugged topography with high, pointed summits, sharp and jagged ridges, very steep or even occasionally vertical rock cliffs/walls and deep gorges and a few glaciers which are losing their volume and retreating for the last few decades due to global warming. The massif's second highest peak Suppa Durek, a.k.a. Erinç Tepe, is located in the immediate vicinity ( to the west.
The mountain and its surroundings were declared a prohibited area due to the war that the Turkish army waged with the Kurds for years. It was not until 2002 that a team of mountaineers was authorized to climb again the Cilo mountains.