Blogs from Southeastern Anatolia, Turkey, Middle East

Mardin is a city unlike any other I’ve seen. It’s a city of nooks and crannies; of cobbled, twisting, narrow lanes; of archways and stone houses rising in layers up a steep mountain. Stone in Mardin, however, is more than just stone. It lives and breathes and guards centuries of secrets. It plays with the sun, changing colors from rose at dawn to honey at dusk. It sings the glory of God and recites the poetry of the Koran. I’d like to say that I gave the city and its vast cultural diversity all of the attention it deserved, but instead it received only a cursory look before I hit the road for the old Roman city of Dara. Nine kilometers outside of the city walls, I got picked up by the rickety Saab of the ... read more

We have some pretty exotic tales for this post! We just returned from a trip unlike any we have taken. We knew we wanted to spend some time in the far eastern/southeastern Turkey, including Turkey's swatch of the famed "fertile crescent," where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers flow. This largely Kurdish area borders Iran, Iraq, and Syria and is home to some of the longest inhabited settlements on earth. Bill saw an article in the online Seattle Times about an unusual homestay tour there. It sounded wonderful--and it truly was! The intent of the tour sets it apart. Nomad Tours Turkey was founded by an English woman, Alison Tanik, who is married to a Kurdish Turk. After their marriage, they moved from Istanbul to her husband's tiny village, Uvacali, not too far from the border with ... read more

Hello everybody: We are writing from Nemrut in Eastern Turkey where we just heard that there was a 7.2 earthquake, centered near Van, which is fairly close by. We just wanted you to know that we didn't feel the quake and we are fine. We will send you another entry about this trip in the next few weeks. Affectionately, Bill and Carol... read more

Gaziantep was another of those towns that it was suggested that maybe we shouldn't visit. Apparently it is meant to be a bit wild. Well once again we were pleasantly suprised and we are so pleased we included it in our trip. It was only a stopover arriving late afternoon and then out again in the morning. The trip from the Yuvacali Home Stay to Gaziantep was about 210 km's, a 3 hrs bus ride and it cost 39 Turkish Lira, about $21 NZ. Sad goodbyes to our wondeful Kurdish host parents and Halil took us to the bus station at Hilvan. Gaziantep is another large city about 1 million people. It was easier to catch a taxi from the Otogar to our hotel, The Belkis Hotel. Staff were very friendly and we had a comfortable ... read more

After breakfast back down beside the Tigris, we loaded up the trusty Fiat and hit the road again. After passing through the town of Batman (had to stop and take a photo of the sign), we continued on to the city of Diyarbakır. This place has a bit of a tough reputation, as the centre of the Kurdish resistance, and there have been riots and uprisings there from time to time. No sign of that today though. As usual, we made our way to the old part of the city, which is invariably the most interesting part. Diyarbakır has very impressive city walls, built of basalt and in fairly good condition. We parked the car and were pleased when Omer said he would accompany us today. Eva who we had met on the homestay had returned ... read more

We set the alarm for 4:10am, were up and dressing warmly (thermals, jackets, beanies) and at the car by 4:30 for the drive up the mountain. The road is all paved and in good condition but of course steep and winding. A little further up we came to the boom gate where Omer paid for our entrance tickets. Upwards we went for about 30 mins til we reached the end of the road, where there was a parking area and cafe. It was still well and truly dark, a few other vehicles were already there. We went inside and had a cup of çay, and Jeff bought a book with all the history of the site.  After a while we were all sent off up the mountain, taking the route to the east terrace.  The track was ... read more

Mehmet (Alisons brother in law and Faro's brother was our guide for the day, he arrived in time for breakfsat with us, then we were off to the Siverek Livestock Market. It was already very hot, but Mehmet's car was airconditioned so the 50 km drive was very pleasant. The day temperatures have been in the high 30 deg's while we have been here. Mehmet parked in the shambles of trucks, carts, horses and livestock and said to us he would see us in an hour. We thought we were on a guided tour and at first wondered how we would get around. It was no problem as everyone just everyone wanted to talk with us and be our friend, everyone wanted their photo taken. So it took a while to get around but it was ... read more