Blogs from Southeastern Anatolia, Turkey, Middle East - page 9

The heat in Hasankeyf was a fierce test of our stamina. Thankfully, we both passed, but my camera failed miserably and now only takes pictures with horizontal stripes. Though, even with a frustrating setback like that, it's hard to complain about much of anything right now. We have, after all, lately been spending most of our time in paradise... Our next stop was unforgettable Savur. We rolled up the hillside of the lovely little town on cobble stoned streets intended to service nothing larger donkey traffic. Nevertheless, our minibus driver was able to manage with some brave and creative maneuvers. He had not heard of our destination, which seemed to me to be a hopeful sign that we were getting even farther off the beaten track. With some lucky guessing, we found the (completely unmarked) Hacı ... read more

Spring Break was phenomenal. So much so that I have no idea what all we actually did. There were about 15 of us, from a variety of countries. We left Istanbul in a rented tour bus on Saturday the 26th, arriving in Ankara that evening for a huge dinner at the parent’s apartment of one of the exchange commission members. The apartment was part of a complex a little removed from the city, and was on top of a hill so the view was spectacular. After dinner, we got back on the bus, and drove through the night to get to southeastern Turkey. I didn’t sleep much, as I was in the back row with a few other people, and didn’t realize until the other seats were full that ours didn’t recline at all. Later there ... read more

So there it was in the distance. I was the first to spot it, so my friend Errol called it, “Keith’s Discovery”, though it had not really been lost for over a century. The two of us were standing on a deserted two lane road that, for all intents and purposes, was in the middle of nowhere. The tiny symmetrical talus summit I had spotted still seemed like it was miles away across some lovely, but somewhat foreboding desert landscape. The brown, boulder-strewn hills that separated us from our destination rose steadily towards the summit, but there were a few deep ravines that sliced across their barren undulations, which would have to be dealt with. Luckily, the sun was getting low in the sky and the scorching heat that had accompanied us for most of the ... read more

Mesopotamia Il Mercante Eccomi finalmente in Mesopotamia, terra ricca di storia e da qualche anno anche di acqua: grazie ad una colossale diga, quello che fino a dieci anni fa era deserto ora e' una distesa di campi coltivati attraversati da infiniti canali per l'irrigazione; solo la temperatura e' rimasta quella di sempre: abbondantemente sopra i 40 gradi! Ad Urfa (Şanlıurfa) avverto per la prima volta la sensazione di essere giunto in oriente: pochi turisti occidentali, caldo opprimente, polvere nell'aria e gli ampi pantaloni bracaloni indossati dagli anziani del luogo. E' d'obbligo in questa citta' rifugiarsi nel fresco parco in cui si trovano la grotta dove naque il profeta Abramo, le due vasche con le carpe sacre (sarebbero davvero ottime cucinate come kebab...), la medressa, moschee e varie sale da the. İmperdibil... read more

Day 3: That night we could hardly sleep in some dormitories (by the way, in Turkey girls and boys don't share the dormitory, they are 2 separate buildings, sometimes in different areas of a city), for 2 hours (personally, I only took a bath and got ready to leave). We had to start our journey to Mount Nemrut at 1.30 am, because of the long distance problem. We arrived there at about 4 am and started to climb about 1 km of rocks, on a blistering cold, a tough wind and mini-darkness. Time seemds to pass so slow and I felt like going around without being up. In the end, at about 4.30 am we were there...sweating, freezing, tired, but full of relief...hehehe....I surely need some exercice. When the sun appeared, the spectacular view opened ... read more