Lance-O and I are being lazy sacks of meat hanging out at the Hilton in Sanliurfa. We just got back from our tour of southeastern Turkey and fly out to Istanbul tomorrow. We have had an amazing time but are ready to head back to the big city. Here is what we have been up to!
Here are some night shots from our last night in our favourite new town, Mardin.
After Mardin, we visited an unexpectedly amazing little village called Dara. I had never heard of it before but it is home to some magnificent Roman ruins dating back to the 6th century. Dara was home to Mesopotamia's first dam and irrigation canals. We were the only tourists at the site (truly amazing considering how intact and maintained it is) and we were given our own private tour by one of the security guards at the site, Murat. He was great and even took us around the village to the various ruins and gave us a little explanation of what we were looking at.
Here is a shot of the necropolis of Dara which stretches for about a kilometer. NO TOURISTS!!!! If this site was in Italy or Greece there would be gigantic tour buses blocking this shot.
Each of the carved out holes you see was a grave site, often housing more than one person, and sometimes families.
As Murat said, "People bones!"
More people bones!
Behind me are the water cisterns which stored water for the population.
Here is a look at the modern village that sits atop the ruins of Dara. After Dara, we headed north back towards Mardin and visited the monastery of Deyrul Zafaran.
Today the site acts as a local boarding school and tourist destination.
Here is the 'original sanctuary' where sun worshippers supposedly viewed the rising sun (god) through the window at the back eastern wall.
This is the chapel in the monastery where services are held in Aramaic. After our visit at the monastery, we drove to the little town of Savur to stay with a family, eat a home cooked meal from Grandma and feed a kitty.
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Our room in Savur.
He was no Bo Cat Gordon, but he was cute!
Savur at night from the terrace of the house we were staying. So nice! After our one night, we drove for about 7 hours to the village of Karadut, our launching pad for Nemrut Dagi.
Room with a view....
And a sense of childlike nostalgia.
After enjoying our spectacular room we visited the summit of Mt Nemrut which rises to 2150 meters and is in the Anti-Tauraus Range.
Here is a shot of the western terrace of Nemrut Dagi. The statutes you see were ordered by Antiochus I Epiphanes who reigned in the area from 64-38 BC.
Romance!
One of the fallen heads from the western terrace - knocked off due to the elements, including earthquakes.
Some more of the heads on the western terrace.
The eastern terrace behind us is more in tact. Here you can see the 'thrones of the gods'. From left to right the gods were: Apollo; Fortuna; Zeus; Antiochus, self proclaimed god; and Heracles. I realize there are six thrones and I only named five gods. Yah, I don't know. That is what Lonely Planet told me and it is 11pm here and I am too lazy from wine to investigate further.
Eastern terrace.
Zeus, is that you?
We visited Nemrut with a group of Belgian tourists who were the best entertainment ever! They constantly broke into song and they could actually sing. I danced a jig in celebration. No, I did not grow an extra leg in Turkey. Behind me is our new friend Selin from Istanbul who was travelling by herself on vacation.
She was a ham like us so we got along famously. She gave us a cheat sheet of all the places to go in Istanbul. We cant wait to hit up the baklava joint she recommended.
Okay, that is it for now. Off to Istanbul tomorrow and we will update you all soon.
Much love,
Lamy Gillespie
Amazing pictures!!! Thank you for sharing your experience with us through such awesome pictures & comments! Stay safe, keep on having fun as I know you both will. Love you lots <3 MomG
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