Southeast Turkey Part III: In the footsteps of Abraham

Candace thinks this shot of the shepherd is the best picture she's ever taken, especially since she took it from a moving bus, driving up a very bumpy road to the site of Göbekli Tepe. It is easy to imagine him as a modern-day Abraham. Be sure to click on it, the man's face is amazing.

Candace was just talking to her grandparents on the phone (well, on the computer actually), and was inspired to continue with the blog report of the Southeastern Turkey trip. It's been so long now since we were actually there that we are in danger of having things slip our mind, so it's probably best to get it all out there now!

The third day of the four-day trip was very special. Within the space of a few hours, we covered thousands and thousands of years of history. Some of it was well-known to us, and other parts were completely new.

We had stayed another night in Urfa, and in the morning we drove about an hour outside of town to a site called Göbekli Tepe. "Tepe" means "mound" or "hill" in Turkish, and is a word that is used to describe any artificial mound that marks an archaeological site (sometimes the Turkish word "Höyük" is also used). Göbekli Tepe, which most of us had never heard of before, is a very important site. One of the Fellows in our group who is a zooarchaeologist (she studies the animal remains at archaeological sites for what they can tell us about the environment and life at the sites) knew about it and convinced the Director to take us there. It is one of the oldest sites in Turkey. It was not a settlement site, because the people that used it were hunter-gatherers, but it was clearly of some ceremonial significance. Archaeologists have dated the remains to approximately 10,000 BC. Just to give you a frame of reference, that is 7,000 years before Stonehenge was built!

A comparison with Stonehenge is not inappropriate. Although Göbekli Tepe was not built on the same scale as Stonehenge, its monuments were also laid out on a circle, and as at Stonehenge, researchers don't know exactly what was going on here. They loosely call it a temple, but really no evidence so far has been found to show that there were sacrifices here, although it seems likely. Here are some pictures of the standing stones that were erected here. If you look closely at some of them you can see carvings of animals -- lizards,
antelopes, even ducks (here they are in a net)!

Some archaeologists think the stones themselves represent standing human figures, but that is just a theory based on the fact that some of them have carvings on the side that may or may not be intended to show arms. Whatever they were for though, it is incredible that they have survived here, and that the carvings are so clear. The archaeologists say that the site was abandoned when the people ceased to be nomadic and settled in villages that were not located high on these rocky/windy hills, but down in the river valley where farming was possible. They do think that burials may still have been carried out here though, and they hope to find some of them in the near future. It is a really, really incredible site, and like nothing either one of us had ever seen before.

After Göbekli Tepe, we moved on to see something that had always SEEMED like ancient history, but in light of what we had just visited, seemed downright modern! It is the village of Harran, which is mentioned in the Bible and in the Koran as the place where Abraham and his family were from. It sits a mere 4 miles from the Syrian border, the closest most of us will ever get to that country. It is dusty, dry, and desolate. There are very few people still living there, and most of them are Arabs and Kurds (Turkish won't do you much good here!), and some of them are semi-nomadic. But some do still live in the traditional "beehive" houses that have been built here for centuries. They are constructed entirely from mud with no wooden supports at all. They are quite practical since they are easy to heat in the winter and remain relatively cool in the summer. We only went into one house, which is a "culture house" that has been retained in its traditional form by the family that owns it, so tourists can come and see what life has been like in Harran for generations.

While we were there, many of us "went native" and purchased head scarves which the owner of the house tied on us in the traditional fashion. We didn't know it when we bought it (ok, Candace picked it out), but as our Israeli friend later point out to us, Peter's black-and-white checkered scarf indicates that he is Palestinian, so we have to be careful where he wears it. The lilac color that Candace is wearing is the popular, fashionable color in Southeastern Turkey right now. Probably 80% of the people, men and women, were wearing it in Urfa. We thought it might indicate a religious or tribal affiliation, but our bus driver told us it has just been the "in" color for about 3 years now.


Some strange stuffed creature at the Culture House



The interior of one of the beehive domes

When we arrived in Harran, school-age children immediately approached us to sell us postcards (some of you will be getting them sometime soon) and a particular kind of trinket that they sell there that is supposed to keep your house safe. It is made from dried chickpeas and all kinds of bits and pieces of feathers, felt, sequins, whatever is on hand probably. We now have one hanging in our kitchen. Harran is a tourist destination, especially because of its ties to Abraham, but because it is remote and close to Syria only fairly intrepid travelers make it there; also, we were there in the off-season so we were really attracting a lot of attention. You can see that the children were interested in us:



Besides being the hometown of Abraham, Harran was an important center of learning in the Islamic period. One of the most important sites in the village is the "University," which is actually the remains of a mosque, constructed in the 8th century, which also housed a medrese, or religious school, from which it now takes its name. It rises up very majestically, and somewhat hauntingly, out of the dusty ground, with the Syrian border in the background.




The other landmark in town is the kale (castle). It was built by Crusaders in the 11th century, on the site of an ancient temple for the worship of the moon. Harran was the base for a cult of the Moon that survived from antiquity all the way into the Middle Ages. Not a lot is known about it, but the people who worshiped the moon there were alternately persecuted by the Christians and, later, the Muslims, but they managed to persist with their cult for centuries. We spent quite a bit of time climbing around there.



Peter conquers the castle at Harran

After Harran, we went back to Urfa and had a wonderful lunch, then headed out for the afternoon to explore the town. We had been staying there for two nights, but had always returned so late that there was no time for sightseeing. In retrospect, we all very much regret that we did not spend more time there.

The full name of Urfa is Şanliurfa, which means "Glorious Urfa." And it really is glorious. The old part of the city is gorgeous and important. Again, it is connected to Abraham. Some Jewish sources also say that Job lived here for awhile. And legend places the Garden of Eden near here, which makes sense since it is between the Tigris and the Euphrates. But we sure didn't see it!

According to the priests of the Syrian Orthodox Church, one of the rulers of this area, King Abgar I of Edessa (one ancient name for Urfa), who ruled during the time of Christ, was impressed with the ministry of Christ and asked him to move to this area to continue it. Obviously that did not happen, but according to the legend Christ did press his face into a cloth, leaving a mark, and sent the cloth to Abgar as a memento. This object, called the mandalyon, was the most prized relic of the Syrian Orthodox Church until they lost it to the Arabs. The Arabs, in turn, used it to ransom Edessa back from the Byzantines, who then promptly lost it in the sack of the city by western Christian Crusader soldiers in 1204, never to be recovered again. Edessa (Urfa) played an important historical role again when the Arab capture of the city in 1144 was used as the pretext for Europe to launch the Second Crusade against the Arabs. So there is a lot of history surrounding this city, but none of it looms larger than the city's association with Abraham.

Both Jewish and Muslim sources say that Abraham was living in Urfa when God called him to move with his family to Canaan and become the father of His chosen people. And here, according to Muslim teachings, is the cave where Abraham was born and lived until he was 10 years old. It is called İbrahim Halilullah Dergahı (say it with me now, "Hallelujah!"). It is one of the holiest Muslim pilgrimage sites, and few tourists visit -- we were surrounded by pilgrims and were certainly the odd Westerners.

The mosque at the birthplace of Abraham


Pilgrims (and Candace) preparing to enter the cave where Abraham was born.

Although there is not really much to see inside, Candace did surreptitiously snap a picture of the women's side. The women were all going through their ritual prayers which included a lot of prostrations, which is why they are all a bit blurry.

It is so holy that there are completely separate men's and women's entrances and spaces inside the cave. You can see from the photo that the window into the inner part of the cave, the site of the birth, is blocked on the women's side by a water tank that supplies the water for the small ablution fountains inside each of the outer caves, so people can wash themselves before praying. Of course they would mount it on the women's side!


An arch outside the mosque at the cave of Abraham, leading to the sacred pool.

Outside the cave the local Muslim legend of Abraham continues. Here, Abraham smashed the idols of the king Nemrut that were in the local temple. As punishment, King Nemrut had Abraham cast down from the battlements of his citadel into a fire. Now there is a 12th century Frankish Crusader castle built where his citadel stood, and two lonely columns remain from a 3rd-century Christian chapel, but the locals persist in calling them the "Throne of Nemrut."


The citadel.

According to the legend, God saved Abraham by changing the fire into water and the firewood into carp. The pool (known as Gölbaşı, literally "at the lakeside") is therefore very sacred, and the carp are fat from being fed by the pilgrims, and are never in danger of being eaten. In fact, it is said that anyone who is sacreligious enough to catch and eat one will go blind!


Feeding the sacred carp.

The entire complex is absolutely gorgeous. We were there as the sun was setting, and the stones of the arcade around the sacred pool were turning a beautiful amber color.


One final note from Urfa. We met our bus that evening in front of a 5-star hotel next to the sacred pool. Some of us stopped in to use the ladies' room because we had a 6-hour ride in front of us. This place was top-quality. And, judging from the toilet design, they must really expect people to stay awhile:

Something bizarre in Istanbul

Peter, Amanda and I were walking in Sultanahmet the other day, between Hagia Sophia and the blue Mosque, when we noticed a strange phenomenon. In the park between the two buildings is a huge, red, mirrored tulip. Amanda says that last spring the International Tulip Festival was held in Istanbul, and that this must be a holdover from that event. Wherever it came from, it is huge, hideous, and incredibly popular. It seems that EVERYONE wants their picture taken between the petals of the tulip.

But it's more interesting than that -- the single largest segment of the population that wants their picture made there is young males. And they don't just stand in front of the tulip for a photo op, they pose in it -- like male models! It is completely strange and quite hilarious. Once we saw several young men do this in a row, from several different groups of friends, over the course of 15 minutes or so, Amanda decided that we had to document this bizarre phenomenon for posterity. So she decided to pose between the petals of the tulip like a tourist while some of the young men were having their friends make their pictures. The results are hilarious. Here is one of Amanda and a young Turk trying to look his best:

Here's another one that we thought was not a great picture because Candace happened to snap it just when the guy finished posing and started to walk out of the tulip:

But, if you look closer, you can see that it's even better than a posed picture. The other guy, to the left, is totally checking himself out in the reflective surface of the tulip!

What is up with that?!?!?

Southeast Turkey: Part II

We're trying to catch up with blogging about our trip, but it's been slow going because we have been busy here as well. But here's another stab at it:

On the second day of our trip, we drove a couple of hours from our base in Urfa to Zeugma. The landscape along the way was extremely dry, and the day was so dusty that during the morning drive we could see only a few feet away from our van.

Besides pistachio trees planted along the road,
everything seemed quite desolate, until we neared the Euphrates river, along whose banks there is more vegetation:

After our very dusty drive, we arrived at the site of Zeugma, which was also cloaked in dust and mist. Zeugma was an ancient city which, like many cities in Asia Minor, passed through several successive periods of history: it was a Hellenistic city founded by one of the generals of Alexander the Great, and was later given by the Roman general Pompey, comrade and later rival of Julius Caesar, to our friend from Part I, the Commagene king Antiochos I. Remember the representations of Antiochos shaking hands with several gods? Copies of those reliefs were set up in the city of Zeugma so the residents there would understand just how awesome their new ruler was.

Zeugma saw its highpoint under the Romans, though. It was a prosperous port city, as the remains of luxurious houses near the water show. There was more room to build in this area than in other ancient cities of comparable wealth, such as Pompeii or Ephesus (which was much, much larger but much more crowded), so the houses of the rich at Zeugma were quite large. They were richly furnished with beautiful mosaic floors, many of which have been removed to a museum and conserved. One of our fellow fellows, Amanda, gave a talk here to fill us all in on the history of the site and its importance. There was a small group of schoolchildren there on a fieldtrip, and one of the little boys, about 10 years old. just barged right into our group and kept talking to Amanda while she was giving her presentation. He probably wanted to know what she was talking about, or where we were from, but he didn't realize that we did not know Turkish, and that he was interrupting. It was a bit annoying, but she made it through.

For many reasons, Zeugma is an important city for archaeologists studying Roman Asia Minor, but there's more to the story than that: over the last decade, the Turkish government has put into action a plan called the GAP Project. GAP is short for Güneydoğu Anadolu Projesi, or "Southeastern Anatolia Project." The purpose of this project is to divert the waters of the nearby Euphrates river by means of a series of dams, to carry water to the farmlands of southeastern Turkey, thereby increasing agricultural production and, they hope, making this one of the richest areas of the country. (The Syrians, by contrast, have complained that the Turkish dams have cut in half the amount of water now reaching them via the Euphrates). Several of the dams have created vast reservoirs, and one of them is directly on top of the ancient site of Zeugma. Once it was determined that Zeugma would be covered by water, an international team of archaeologists undertook "rescue excavations." These very fast excavations, carried out under the gun, were aimed mostly at retrieving the gorgeous and important mosaics from the rich houses. Of course, much more of interest was lost, or at least is submerged for the time being:






Now it is possible to take a "tour" of the city by boat, which is horrible because the motor of the boats and all the motion of the water they make is undoubtedly disturbing the archaeological remains below the shallow water!

We had an hour or so to climb around in the site and get a feel for the landscape, and see some remains of houses that were uncovered by the excavation but are still above the waterline:




















Perhaps in the future, as the water level of the reservoir recedes as is planned, more of the site will be excavated, maybe this time more slowly and carefully, and we will learn more about this important site.

After leaving Zeugma, we continued on for another hour or so to the modern city of Gaziantep. The original name of the city was just Antep, which means "beautiful spring." In 1920 the appellation "Gazi" or "Warriors of God" was added to commemorate the fact that the men of the town were able to resist a 10-month siege by the French army. Of course, it was the French. But still...

Gaziantep, also sometimes called just Antep, is most famous for its pistachios, which are supposed to be the best in the world. In fact, the Turkish word for pistachio is "Antep fistiği", or, literally, "Antep nut." We found it difficult to argue with this assessment! Along with the wonderful pistachios came unbelievable baklava. Unlike the heavy, syrup-soaked baklava most of you are probably familiar with from Middle Eastern or Greek restaurants in the States, the baklava in Gaziantep that we had when we stopped for lunch was fresh from the oven and made from layer upon layer of light, buttery pastry, stuffed with those amazing pistachios, and lightly drizzled with a delicate syrup. Yum yum yum! (An amusing note: One of the Fellows in our group, Ivana, loves to say "yum, yum, yum!" Imagine her surprise when she found out in her Turkish class a few weeks ago that "Yumyum" means "cannabalism" in Turkish!)

After lunch, we all went to the museum that was newly-built to house the Zeugma mosaics. It is the second-largest mosaic museum in the world, after one in Tunisia. The space is great and the mosaics are gorgeous. Here are a few examples:


Although this picture is not great because the lighting in the museum has to be so low to protect the art, you can see that they have reconstructed the floorplans of the houses in the museum so visitors can see what the mosaics looked like where they were found.

This is the most famous of the mosaics, a fragmentary piece of a floor called the "Gypsy Girl" because of the scarf tied around the head, and the hoop earring. Others think it is actually Alexander the Great, but we will probably never know for sure:

Here also is an amazing bronze statue of the Mars, the Roman god of war, recovered at the site:


Also, here is a picture of a photo in the museum that shows the site of Zeugma, at night, before the mosaics were removed and the site was flooded:














Before we made it in to see the mosaics though, we were greeted with a suprise at the gate of the museum. There in front, along with his little sisters, was Amanda's "friend" from Zeugma! He was so excited to see her again! Of course pictures had to be made:


After the museum, we all split up to spend the afternoon exploring the city. Some of us went to one of the many baklava stores in the old area of the city to buy some to take home. This was a great process, because of course we all had to sample the various types before selecting our purchases. Much tastier than carpet shopping!

Gaziantep is a very pleasant and friendly place. There was much more to see than we had time to see, so we mostly spent the time strolling around enjoying the atmosphere and talking about how much we would like to go back sometime. (Oh, and eating baklava and pistachios). About a week before we left on our trip, Candace happened to run across a Travel Planet article online about 10 places in the world that are not visited very often by travelers, but should be, and Gaziantep was on it. Based on our experience, this is a great suggestion. Beautiful architecture, a wonderful museum and amazing food make this a place worth returning to!

The Byzantine Kale (Castle) of Gaziantep.

Consulate Election Breakfast

As a Fulbrighter, Candace was invited to a breakfast hosted by the Consulate to celebrate the U.S. presidential elections on Wednesday morning. It was planned for 7 am on November 5th, which was supposed to be around the time that the election results were coming in and the presidential decision finalized. However, as you are all aware, because of the way the numbers came in, the new president was clearly chosen by about 6 am here in Turkey, so the breakfast was less exciting than it might have been, but it was still a good chance to be around other Americans, and to see how the Turkish people and press were responding to the news.

We were also able to arrange to have one of our fellow fellows, Amanda, come with us, which was fun. The night before, we had stayed up quite late and had gone to a meeting of the Democrats Abroad that was being held a few blocks from the Research Center, to watch the results come in. However, by the time 1:30 am rolled around, there were still no numbers to post, so we gave up and went to bed so we could get up at 5:00 and make it to the breakfast. (Note: for those who might be wondering, there are no chapters of Republicans Abroad or Libertarians Abroad in Istanbul).

But sleep-deprived as we were, we did make it to the Consulate shindig the next morning. The spread of food was disappointing (we were hoping for bacon), but it was sponsored by American companies, including McDonalds (who brought egg McMuffins), Starbucks, Dole, and Dunkin Donuts (yay!). Interestingly, the donuts that McDonald's brought were each individually packaged in their own plastic clamshell, which seemed ridiculiously wasteful. We were later told that because of high security, each donut had to be placed on the conveyor belt of a metal detector and passed through, so the individual casing was intended to keep them from getting dirty when they passed under the plastic flaps at the beginning and end of the tunnel! Here's a picture of the Dole booth. Notice the Nemrud Dağ beach!



Proving once again that the world is much smaller than we can possibly imagine, the breakfast was organized by the sister-in-law of one of our friends at the Getty, who works in the same department Peter did. She and her husband (our friend's brother) work for the State Department and were transferred here just a week or so before we moved to Turkey. We met him (Marco) for lunch on Monday, then met her (Karen) at the breakfast. The Fulbright office director, Surreya Bey (Mr. Surreya) brought her over to our table to introduce her to Peter and I as a member of the Consulate staff we might want to know, and was quite surprised when we started talking to each other about other family members we knew, etc.

A Turkish news station interviews Surreya Bey, the Fulbright Director in Istanbul (Right)

The breakfast was interesting, but proved to be more of an opportunity for the Turkish media to have a story about the U.S. election than it was for U.S. citizens to celebrate the election.

Camera Crews at the Breakfast

The Consul General spoke briefly (she's the one at the podium in the picture below), and there was a translator to translate her speech into Turkish line by line, but when it came time for the panel that had been planned to speak about the election and its implications for Turkey, we were surprised to find that they were all Turkish speakers and there was NO translation. So for


half an hour probably 80% of the people in the room sat and patiently listened to the opinions of people that we could not understand at all. Then internet phone calls were made to Turkish citizens in the U.S. and broadcast to the room. The Consul General would ask "What is it like there in Philadelphia?" and the answer would then be in Turkish. So we didn't really learn much about either what was going on in the U.S. or how the Turks felt about the election.

But we did have a good time, and met some interesting people, including a member of the AKP political Party here in Turkey (the pro-Islamist party now in power), who was seated at our table. He told us straight out that he was not interested in being there, and had only come because it was part of his job, but he did tell us at least a few things that the panel speakers were saying. Candace also was got to shake hands with a member of Turkish Parliament, because she happened to be standing close to the person he was coming to talk to.

We also got great "swag bags" with pins, pads of paper, keychains, and mugs that all prove we were at the Turkish Consulate Election Breakfast 2008. Pretty cool.

In other election-related news, Amanda and Candace scoured the streets of our neighborhood today buying as many newpapers as we could as keepsakes of the historic election. Calinda, Candace's older sister, works for the Dallas Morning News, and had mentioned that they had to print extra editions of the paper the day after the election, and suggested that it might be a good idea for everyone to pick one up to keep. Inspired by this, we found several different Turkish-language newspapers both right- and left- leaning (Cumhuriyet ("Republic") and Radikal), as well as papers in English, German, French, and Spanish. Who knows, maybe someday they will be worth something?

Note to our loyal readers

There are two new posts below. For some reason, blogger posted them in reverse order from how we posted them. We just wanted to direct your attention to the short entry on Turkish Republic Day, because it has a video of the fireworks, which were awesome! It is below the first of our entries on our trip to southeast Turkey. Be sure to read everything!