Blogs from Hasankeyf , Southeastern Anatolia, Turkey, Middle East

Hasankeyf, Southeastern-Anatolia, Turkey 17th June, 2014 “The birds they sing at the break of day Start again I seem to hear them say Don't dwell on what has passed away Or what is yet to be” Leonard Cohen Today I swam in the Tigris river. Refreshing and fast moving. Today wars seem to often revolve around oil. Tomorrow they seem set to revolve around water. The Middle East endures with a multitude of ideological, ethnic, religious and pan-national tensions, conflicts and associations. The politics of water already plays a major role in relations between Iraq, Syria and Turkey. In 1990, Turkey started construction of the Southeastern Anatolia Project (also known as GAP) to dam sections of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers north of the Syrian/Turkey border. Syria and Iraq, otherwise often in dispute themselves, formed an ... read more

Had a nice brekky at the hotel, packed up and waited for Omer. We drove on in to the old part of Midyat where Omer dropped us off for an hour or so of free time. We first wandered into the back streets of the old city, with its ancient, honey-coloured stone houses and narrow alleys, quite similar to Mardin although not as steeply hilly. We came across an old church, but couldn't see inside. A small boy attached himself to us and followed us around, occasionally trying to lead us in particular directions, which we avoided following. He was hoping we'd pay him to be our guide. Shook him off eventually. After the back alleys, we explored some of the old shopping bazaar areas then headed back to the main street and found a lovely ... read more

Heading to the ancient city of Hasankeyf, which is located in the province of Batman, (Not the one of the super heroes :)) we crossed the capital of the province, which is also called Batman. About Batman: Batman is a city in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey and the capital of Batman Province. It lies on a plateau, 540 meters above sea level, near the confluence of the Batman River and the Tigris. The Batı Raman oil field, which is the largest oil field in Turkey, is located just outside the city. Batman has a local airport and a military airbase, which was used for transit of aircraft and helicopters in some search and rescue operations of the Gulf War. Until the 1950s, Batman was a village called Iluh with a population of about 3,000. ... read more