{"id":63357,"date":"2013-01-21T15:46:58","date_gmt":"2013-01-21T13:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=63357"},"modified":"2023-04-03T18:58:14","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T15:58:14","slug":"land-before-time-south-eastern-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2013\/01\/21\/land-before-time-south-eastern-turkey\/","title":{"rendered":"Land before time – south-eastern Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Land before time – south-eastern Turkey<\/h1>\n

Story and photos by LOUISA LIM
\nlouisa@thestar.com.my<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Zeynel-Bey-mausoleum-f2\"<\/span><\/div>\n
Where time stood still: The writer in front of the Mausoleum of Zeynel Bey in Hasankeyf.<\/div>\n

Even to adventurers, south-eastern Turkey is terra incognita. However, those who dare tread its lesser-known roads will be greatly rewarded \u2013 with pistachios, smiles and soul-searing sights.<\/b><\/p>\n

THE red flag appeared in the periphery of the world news section of a local daily: \u201cCar bomb kills one, wounds 18 in south-eastern Turkey.\u201d<\/p>\n

But I knew it was too late to turn back. My flight and hotels had been booked and, besides, hadn\u2019t I always longed to go on an exciting adventure before I hit the big Three O?<\/p>\n

So it was with no small degree of trepidation that I set off on a bus ride through one of the world\u2019s last tourism frontiers, southeastern Turkey (or Turkish Kurdistan, if you like). Bordered by Syria to the south and Iraq to the southeast, this landlocked region is PKK (Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party) territory and a no-man\u2019s land.<\/p>\n

For nearly two decades, this was the epicentre of the Kurdish rebellion. Coupled with harsh weather, Third World infrastructure and scant tourist facilities, southeastern Turkey was off-limits to travellers and Turks from Western Anatolia.<\/p>\n

Until recently, that is. Security levels are improving.<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/i> listed Kurdistan as No 34 on its list of 41 places to travel in 2011 (it beat Budapest and Miami). However, this has had little effect on tourism numbers \u2013 only hardy backpackers and die-hard adventurers trickle in by the handful.<\/p>\n

As my bus wound its way around the barren wilderness punctuated by the occasional desiccated shrub, I saw Mother Nature flaunt her assets. Around me were sheer sandstone cliffs dropping precipitously into nowhere and deserted hilltop citadels tinted golden by the unrelenting sun.<\/p>\n

Harran, one of the world\u2019s oldest continuous inhabited spots, where traditional mud brick \u2018beehive\u2019 houses still stand.<\/div>\n

Sand soon gave way to concrete as the bus rumbled past rows of unsightly apartment blocks that scars nearly every town, signalling that we were close to Urfa, one of Southeastern Anatolia\u2019s largest towns. Nearby was an army checkpoint, surrounded by menacing barb wires and sandbags piled high \u2013 an intimidating sight even to the bravest soul.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, I waved at the weary-faced soldiers, curious to see how they would respond. They waved back, all smiles.<\/p>\n

Once the stomping ground of Prophet Abraham, Urfa is replete with biblical and Quranic lore and ancient Islamic edifices. Its proximity to Syria also means that the city radiates a distinctly Arabic vibe. With the muezzin\u2019s call to prayer as background track, women clad in hijab<\/i> and burqa<\/i> and mustachioed men in keffiyeh<\/i> (loose robes) clutching prayer beads go about their daily lives.<\/p>\n

As the only East Asian around, I felt as conspicuous as a human on a planet filled with eight-legged ETs. Then I saw a little girl staring open-mouthed at me.<\/p>\n

\u201cMama, too-rist<\/i>!\u201d yelped another little girl, tugging urgently at her mother\u2019s shirt-sleeves.<\/p>\n

\u201cMerhaba <\/i>(Hello)!\u201d greeted mother and daughter in unison, eyes sparkling with curiosity. Witnessing the scene, another local ambled over with some apple-flavoured tea and watched in amusement as I gingerly took a sip.<\/p>\n

Ancient wander<\/b><\/p>\n

Just like the centuries of visiting pilgrims before me, I started by paying my respects to the great prophet in Golbasi, one of the few green lungs in the city. Golbasi isn\u2019t just any park however \u2013 this was the place where Prophet Abraham and monotheism was born.<\/p>\n

The story goes like this: Nimrod, the local Assyrian King, received a prophetic dream that a child would be born who would overthrow his rule. As a result, he had every baby in his kingdom killed except for Abraham, who was hidden in a nearby cave. When Abraham was discovered years later, Nimrod tried to cast him into a burning pit. But God saved Abraham by turning flames into water and the firewood to carp.<\/p>\n

A boy selling simit, or Turkish-style pretzel, in the Urfa\u2019s historic bazaar.<\/div>\n

These days, it is considered auspicious to feed the thousands of sacred carp that still live in the pools in Golbasi.<\/p>\n

Then I dove headlong into Urfa\u2019s bazaar, with its tangle of narrow streets lined with copper craftsmen and chain-smoking vendors who hawk everything from spices and sheepskins, to jeans and ceremonial costumes. Built in the mid-16th century by Suleiman the Magnificent, the bazaar is the go-to place for bargain-loving locals.<\/p>\n

Wandering past the bedesten<\/i> (a covered market built during the Ottoman period), where fabrics were sold, I found myself in a busy courtyard filled with the click-clacking sounds of dice and backgammon being played by tea-swilling men. A boy walked among them, balancing a large tray piled high with simit<\/i>, or Turkish-style pretzels, on his head.<\/p>\n

Everything is delightfully antique in these parts, and Urfa and its surroundings are no exception. Six miles from there is G\u00f6bekli Tepe, one of the most startling archaeological discoveries of our time: massive monoliths that the National Geographic described as \u201cvaguely similar to Stonehenge, except that G\u00f6bekli Tepe was built much earlier and is made not from roughly hewn blocks, but from cleanly carved limestone pillars splashed with bas-reliefs of animals \u2013 a cavalcade of gazelles, snakes, foxes, scorpions, and ferocious wild boars.\u201d<\/p>\n

As my tour guide Uraz Nehir and I straggled up the hill where G\u00f6bekli Tepe is situated, we began talking about the PKK and their crippling effects on the region\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were talks of ceasefire, but the fights resumed five or six months ago,\u201d said Nehir, a fiercely patriotic and progressive Ankara-born Turk in his 20s.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany Kurdish themselves do not approve of the PKK. Too many innocent lives are lost; people just want to live normally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nehir, who has visited this region a few times, claimed tour guides are paid extra money for tours to southeastern Turkey because of the \u201clong bus rides\u201d and \u201cunpredictability\u201d. Thankfully, our journey was disrupted only once when the UK government issued a warning on one of the highways we were supposed to take.<\/p>\n

It was reported that the PKK had been rigging the highway\u2019s petrol kiosks with explosives. Consequently, we had to take a 10-hour detour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is a fight, we change our route. So far, nothing bad has happened and I\u2019m still alive,\u201d he said. \u201cDon\u2019t worry!\u201d<\/p>\n

Disappearing act<\/b><\/p>\n

Pointing to several foreign archaeologists excavating under the cloudless sky, Nehir said, \u201cThe oldest history in the world is written in this part of Anatolia. That\u2019s what makes it so special.\u201d<\/p>\n

My heart skipped a beat. Here I was, at \u2013 some say \u2013 the original site of the Garden of Eden.<\/p>\n

In the opinion of Klaus Schmidt, the German archaeologist who has been working here more than a decade, G\u00f6bekli Tepe was the site of the world\u2019s first temple.<\/p>\n

From there, we travelled to Mount Nemrut National Park, home to the monuments of an ancient megalomaniac. The views from the bus were breathtaking.<\/p>\n

Squat trees grew wildly in a river valley of spectacular proportions, and the occasional villager plodded by, leading his donkey. We stopped at a safe bend, and Nehir strode over to one of the bushes to grab \u2013 it seemed \u2013 a fistful of flower buds. It was only after he handed some to me that I realised that we were standing next to a cluster of pistachio trees.<\/p>\n

The Turks call pistachios fistik<\/i>, which is also slang for \u201chot babe\u201d \u2013 a testament to how much they love it.<\/p>\n

We arrived at Mount Nemrut after braving a bumpy, dusty and \u2013 to cap it all off \u2013 winding road up the mountains. Looming before us was the immense burial mound of King Antiochus, with its array of gigantic marble heads severed from their stone bodies. To reach the site, one had to climb for another mile on foot, but there were also donkeys at the foothill one could hire for a fee.<\/p>\n

Intent on incinerating the calories from my two-week diet of kebab and baklava, I opted to scale the heights of the 50m super-structure. Soon, I came face-to-face with the big, broody heads that I had found so strangely compelling, even in photographs. The sun was starting to set, casting a rosy glow on the deities, among them Greek Gods, eagles, lions and the king himself.<\/p>\n

One travel guide describes the Nemrut ensemble, which includes reliefs, a cave cistern and ruins of columns, as \u201cone of the most awesome sights in all of Anatolia.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would be a shame if these edifices didn\u2019t last. According to several media sources, Hasankeyf, for one, is destined to vanish beneath the waters of the Ilisu Dam, the largest hydropower project in Turkey, slated to be completed next year.<\/p>\n

The proposed dam will flood an area from Batman to Midyat, drowning the historic site and several other archeological treasures, displacing 37 villages.<\/p>\n

The Washington Institute<\/i>, however, was optimistic over the project, claiming that the dam was imperative for counter-terrorism purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis area is pierced by canyons that run for tens of miles and are hundreds of feet deep. In fact, it would not be exaggerated to describe these canyons as sort of a \u2018PKK highway\u2019,\u201d said its website.<\/p>\n

And when it\u2019s completed, the Ilisu dam would flood these canyons, blocking this \u201cPKK highway\u201d.<\/p>\n

But these fierce rebels did little to ruin my amazing trip so far. We decided to celebrate our journey in a meyhane<\/i>, a traditional bar playing Kurdish music.<\/p>\n

The Turks are known to enjoy an occasional pint and jive, and anyone who can snap fingers and swivel their hips are welcome on the dance floor. As I boogied with my newfound friends, my worries evaporated, replaced by irrepressible feelings of joy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Land before time – south-eastern Turkey Story and photos by LOUISA LIM louisa@thestar.com.my Where time stood still: The writer in front of the Mausoleum of Zeynel Bey in Hasankeyf. Even to adventurers, south-eastern Turkey is terra incognita. However, those who dare tread its lesser-known roads will be greatly rewarded \u2013 with pistachios, smiles and soul-searing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":63358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2939,1094],"tags":[5605],"class_list":["post-63357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultureart","category-tourism","tag-hasankeyf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}