Our day ın Urfa

Urfa is known to be a pious, pilgrimage town. Lance and I fit right in. Supposedly Abraham, a great Islamic prophet was in Urfa destroying pagan gods one day when Nimrod the local Assyrian king took offence. Nimrod had Abraham immolated on a funeral pyre but God turned the fire into water and the burning coals into fish. Abraham was thrown in the air from Damlacik hill and landed on a bed of roses (thanks Lonely Planet!).

The area where all thıs went down is right outside our hotel, in fact, we have a little balcony that overlooks it. Today on the hill from which Abraham was thrown stands the Urfa citadel or kale. There is debate over who built the citadel and when (Hellenistic times? By the Byzantines? Turks during the Crusades?) and it provides excellent views of Urfa. Unfortunately we are havıng technıcal dıffıcultıes and dont have a pıcutre of the cıtadel to post rıght now but Google ıs a marvelous tool! Here ıs someone elses pıcture of the cıtadel ;)

Recreating the story of Abraham, the pool behind me is filled with sacred carp. Legend has it that anyone who catches the fish will go blind.

 As I already find it difficult having subpar vision, we decided to feed the fish rather than feed on them.

Lance at the pond.

Next we hiked up to the citadel and walked around the back side of it where there is a residential area. Quite different from Killarney…

When we were walking along this backstreet we ran into some kids who asked to have their photos taken. I think the only English they knew was `Allo` and `photo`.  They were all very sweet and even some of the older ladies hanging out asked for their photos too! Check out the markings on the lady on the right. I am not sure what they are as our conversation was limited but they were kind and we shared smiles.

After hiking down from the citadel we visited one of the mosques at the base of the hill.

Mosque Zamboni!

 To finish off our day, we puttered around the local bazaar. Many people greeted us with friendly ``Merhaba`s`` and asked us where we were from. All in all we had a great day and we wıll post about our experıence at Gobekli Tepe and Harran soon!

We will keep you updated and let you know we are safe :)

Lots of love,

Lamy