Spring Break Part IV: Mardin and Nemrut Mountain

The Mighty Mesapotamian Valley! Gorgeous. We couldn't get enough of it. Notice how there is no horizon line. We woke up early the next morning to enjoy the gorgeous hotel we were staying in, and the view from our balcony.









Memet picked us up and took us to an outdoor cafe for tea. With the language challenge, he often settled for silence rather than trying to explain to us the plan. So we just went with the flow, and realized he wanted to take us to each special spot in Mardin for the right view, the right ambience, the right cup of tea. Afterwards, we drove 6 km outside of Mardin to Deyrulzafran, or "Saffron Monastery" named for the color of the yellowish rock used to make the buildings.





This monastery was built in 493AD, and was from 1120 to the 1920s the seat of the Syrian Orthodox patriarch, which has since been relocated in Damascus. It is still in operation, rumored to have two monks working there and about 25 orphans, though we didn't see any on our tour.
Syrian Orthodox priests believe that the Syrian Church was established in this area during the lifetime of Christ. Today, the core uniqueness of the Syrian Church is that the liturgy is in Syriac language, written from right to left, having evolved from ancient Aramaic, the mother tongue of Jesus.
The underground vault was the most interesting part of the complex. It was supposedly used as a temple by sun worshippers as long ago as 2000BC. So when the Syrian Church established this monastery in 493AD, this temple was already here. The window once used to worship the sunrise is now mostly blocked. The vault's ceiling is constructed without mortar; the stones are 3 meters thick and held together using the keystone method.




Services are still held here in the chapel, and the patriarch sometimes visits from Damascus. There are also guest rooms in which people can stay for religious visits. Another example of a layering of religions, from ancient times to present use.




After Memet's treating us to lunch, and our expressions of gratitude which just did not seem enough for the last 24 hours of feeding us and carting us all around the sites of Mardin, we headed West towards Nemrut Mountain.



Storks!




We crossed the Euphrates River by ferryboat (and I had a flashback to Laos).






That night, we stayed in a pansiyon in a small village, Karadut, about 12km from the summit of Nemrut Mountain. The next morning, we woke up at 4:30am and drove up to see the famous sunworshipping shrine at sunrise.



The temple consists of a row of stone gods seated facing the sunrise on the east side of the summit, and another series of stone gods on the west side facing the sunset. The temple and tomb complex were built by Antiochus I Epiphanes (64-38 BC), the son of the founder of the Commagene kingdom, which was a breakaway dynasty from the Seleucid Empire, remnants of which can only be found within a small radius of Nemrut mountain. Antiochus was a megalomaniac and built this temple as a monument to himself. He claimed descent from Darius the Great and Alexander the Great. A German engineer came across this site in 1881, but it wasn't until 1953 that a comprehensive archeological survey of the site began. At the eastern temple, you will find six decapitated seated statues, the heads measuring about 3 meters in height. They represent Apollo, Fortuna (a symbol of the Commagene Kingdom), Zeus, Antiochus himself, Hercules, and an unidentified statue.

It was freezing; Christy and I walked up in our sleeping bags.



The temple was meant to incorporate several different deities from different cultures, modeled after Alexander the Great's principle of syncretism, in order to foster a sense of unity among disparate peoples within his empire.
On Antiochus' birthday, the Commagene people supposedly filed up the mountain to witness the sunrise and make sacrifices and offerings to the gods on the alter which Christy is standing upon. The lion is a guardian of the altar. On the western side, which was covered in snow, there is supposed to be the first astrological relief: a depiction of Leo the lion (my sign!), but we weren't able to find it under the snow.





We had a long drive ahead of us that day, especially tiring since we started the day at 4:30 (which was totally worth it). The first place we stopped was to see an old castle from the Commagene Kingdom.

Next, we visited Septimus Severus Bridge, a Roman bridge built between 193 and 211 AD. Only three of the original four columns are in place, because when one of Septimus' daughters was killed, he had one of the columns removed.



That night we stayed in Urgup once again, a familiar place, yet not quite the bussling metropolis that is Ankara. Our drive the next day was short and sweet, a nice way to work our way back into central Anatolia. Here is Christy enjoying the comfy armchair at a gas station where we ate lunch:

And this concludes our awesome Spring Break travels. This may have been my favorite part of Turkey so far, and I look forward to returning to this part of the country next year.

Spring Break Part III

On our way to Mardin, we stopped at Göbekli Tepe, a recent archaeological find: possibly the world's oldest temple. It is 11,000 years old, crafted by pre-historical people who had not yet developed metal tools or pottery. It was erected by hunter-gatherers in the 10th millennium BC before the advent of sedentism, yearlong settlements. Göbekli Tepe is Turkish for "Hill with a potbelly" and was erected on the highest point of a mountain ridge some 15 km northeast of Şanlıurfa. The site is currently undergoing excavation by German and Turkish archaeologists. Excavation began in 1994. The oldest layer contains monolithic pillars linked by coarsely built walls to form circular structures. So far, four such circular arrangements, with diameters between 10 and 30m have been uncovered. Surveys indicate the existence of 16 additional circular structures. The reliefs depict lions, bulls, boars, foxes, gazelles, donkeys, snakes and other reptiles, insects, spiders, and birds, particularly vultures and water birds.






Visit the website below to read a recent Smithsonian Magazine article about Gobekli Tepe:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/gobekli-tepe.html

When we arrived in Mardin, we were met by a Dust Storm from Syria. We were also met by my Turkish teacher-friend's former student, Memet. (My friend used to live and work in Mardin 20 years ago, and when I told her we were traveling there, she said, "Let my former student, Memet, take care of you. He has a very good heart.") We were about to embark on the most generous hospitality I've ever experienced.



After lunch at a friend's restaurant, and our first taste of cig kofte, Memet took us on a tour of the cities religious buildings. Mardin is fascinating in that churches exist next to synagogues next to mosques. There are no protests; everyone is friends in this small city. In fact, Memet told us there was just an Easter Sunday celebration at the Syrian Orthodox church, and afterwards, everyone including Muslims, attended an outdoor picnic.
The Kasim Pasa Medresesi, a 15th century religious school:




The Mar Ismuni Church, a Syrian Orthodox Church:



We noticed, and learned later in a museum, that Mardin was built on a hillside so that no house shed a shadow on another house. Each home enjoyed ample natural sunlight, but all the walkways existed in shadow to provide relief during the hot hot summer months when people had to walk outside.



Memet took us to a few key locations to enjoy the sunset.





We then met up with his wife, Gulhane, and three sons, Sezer, Seyfettin, and Hasan. We viewed the old citadel and had a cup of tea overlooking the Mesopotamian (Syrian) Plain, then they took us out for lahmacun at a restaurant, then to their home for tea and music and conversation. Keep in mind, Memet doesn't speak a lick of English, so we're relying entirely on my Turkish this whole 24 hours in Mardin. It was actually an amazing feeling to be able to communicate and enjoy each other's company (of course not talking about anything too deep or complicated), with my limited Turkish and then translating everything to Christy. They were such a lovely family, and the sons had lots of questions about American culture. And just as we complimented their gorgeous hazel eyes, they loved our blue eyes.






That night I slept HARD...my brain hasn't been that challenged in a long time, but my Turkish really improved on this trip. Here are some pics of our fancy boutique hotel: