Mesopotamia is the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. It's Saturday, 8/31, and we're in the Old City of Mardin in southeastern Turkey, where the temp is in the mid 90's and the sun is blinding. We are about 7 miles from the Syrian border. The main road of the Old City is a delightful mile-long circle, lined with homes and shops selling a variety of nuts, seeds, Turkish candies, local wine, jewelry, fruit. There are steps leading up and down to other smaller streets and more shops, housing, bazaars. The traffic is horrendous. We bought a few things to snack on, and Anne bought a purse to replace the one that fell apart days ago. Earlier today we visited Dara, the site of a Roman city where we viewed a recently-excavated cave building with ancient human remains. When we visited ancient cisterns, a small group of children sang, in the English taught to them by an older sister, the song Are you sleeping, Brother John? In return, Anne and I sing Frere Jacques to them in French (which must make Thom cringe to think about). Orhan explains to them we sang the same song in French, and we gave them all some coins for their performance. We go on to visit an active Syrian Orthodox monastery build on the site of an ancient Sun Temple. We can't possibly share everything we are seeing and learning with you. We'd have to write a book. Visit the Spiekerman website for a look at itineraries if we've piqued your interest. Now here's what we've been doing:
Sunday 8/25: President Erdogan is coming to Trabzon for a speech two blocks away from our hotel, but we leave for Erzurum. Anne buys fresh hazelnuts and an authentic nutcracker along the roadside heading to Mother Mary monastery. We drive through a beautiful canyon area with some tunnels. The site is surrounded by huge pine trees, and there are many visitors. Continuing on, we came across the mountains and lost the tall pine trees. We are still in tall mountains but it's warmer and drier.
8/26: We are in Erzurum, on a plateau at 6000', the largest city in eastern Anatolia. In the morning it's cool while we sit on the hotel's terrace overlooking the city, surrounded by mountains. We take a walking tour of the old city walls, mosque, tombs, madrassa. On our way to Kars, we stop at a wonderful 13th century bridge where two rivers join on their way to the Caspian Sea. The bridge is 240 meters long, 7-8 meters wide. There were rooms below for travelers along the Silk Road. My photographer got some great pics. We travel through canyons alongside the river, and we see pinks, white, black, copper colors in the canyons alongside the teal-colored river. We have learned that many valuable artifacts have been taken to museums in St. Petersburg and Moscow following Russian wars and occupation in eastern Turkey .
8/27: There's rain and lightning overnight, but it's a beautiful morning in Kars. We visit the very interesting Kars Museum. We see across the river and stunning valley to the Armenian border when we visit the remains of the capital of the Armenian kingdom of Ani, an important point along the Silk Road, now a UNESCO site. We see the old city walls along the west side with natural canyons forming other borders, ruins of many churches and a cathedral, and a hamann (health house) from later centuries. So much history everywhere we walk! We see farmers preparing for winter with massive amounts of stored hay for the livestock. These are beautiful meadow lands, and the cows, sheep and goats we pass all look so healthy. There are soldiers and police visible, and checkpoints are common. At a rest stop, we are befuddled when we can't figure out how to open the door to the WC. We had to wave our hand in front of an electric eye for the door to open. From a scenic point, we see hazy Mt. Ararat, where Noah's Ark was thought to be resting. At out hotel in Dogubeyazit, we happen to meet Sabahaddin Alkan, the person responsible for our travel itinerary. He tells us he lived with a family in Minneapolis as a young student, improving his English. He has returned once for another visit with the family.
8/28: The melons and watermelons we eat here are the best ever! We think it's because the watermelons still have seeds, and the melons remain in the fields until they are ripe. All the produce is tasty. We see the watchtowers near the Iranian border today as we drive up into mountains, to 2644 km, on our way to Van, the hometown of our dear driver, Murat. There is much snow in this region 7 months of the year. We pass a huge lava field at Tendrick Mountain which was last active 4000 years ago. We stopped by some waterfalls which feed beautiful Lake Van, the largest in eastern Turkey, 500 meters deep, 400 km around the lake. In 2011, a 7.2 earthquake killed 1,000 people here. We do see stork nests along our drive.
8/29: We visit Hosap Castle site, which still has stored grains from centuries ago. We meet Mehmet Kusman, a former watchman of the site for 40 years. He speaks a little English, has been to Los Angeles, now a stone cutter who works with basalt, knows the Urartian language, and has had job offers around the world. We continue on to meet a ferry to the island of Akdamar where we visit a restored 10th century Armenian Church of the Holy Cross. After our ferry ride, we cross the road to enjoy an inci kefal fish lunch prepared by Murat at the restaurant he worked at years ago. Very good! Many Iranians are visiting Van for vacations and shopping. We stop to see a cat refuge for the endangered white cats of the area, famous for having one blue eye and one brown, green or yellow eye.
8/30: It rains as we leave lovely Van. We leave eastern Anatolia for southeastern Anatolia. We pass through the Taurus mountains, and the temperature rises to 40° C. We see another Silk Road bridge in Batman, and we see oil wells. Orhan and Murat prepared a special treat. They barbecued chicken wings and vegetables for us along the Tigris River in an area, Hasankeyf, soon to be submerged underwater by a dam. The whole city has to be moved, and the old cave homes and bridges will never be seen again. Very sad. Murat also made delicious finger-sized stuffed cabbage. Our guys treat us so well.
Our adventures continue in the morning. Wishing you all well!
A & M
Sent from Samsung tablet.
