Back on the bus, we were off to Şanlıurfa. It was reported in the Lonely Planet as being a more pious town that Gaziantep, and indeed it was the home to quite a few prophets, including Abraham, Jethro, Job and Shuayb. We didn’t see the Atatürk Dam from the road, but the results of the GAP irrigation project, which started about 20 years ago, showed everywhere in the crops and orchards thriving in areas that were virtually desert previously. We still get a bit of a shock when we see overhead sprinklers pouring out water, and wonder if that is still in use down Port Fairy way, or if the drought has forced more efficient irrigation methods.
When we got off the bus and sat down to gather our thoughts, a man approached us, asking if we needed accommodation. He turned out to be the owner of a family run pension, the very one recommended by our previous hotel manager and also the one that Keith had found on the Internet. It was all very providential, and I suppose a phone call could have been made to help things along. Our new hosts included dinner and asked us if we wanted vegetarian meals. Surely this was unusual, so maybe our eating out of the night before was the talk of Kahta and it had been relayed to Şanlıurfa!It was a short walk to the most beautiful gardens to have lunch. There are several beautiful mosques adjacent to the park, which we visited before relaxing with a picnic on the well watered grass.
In the gardens there are two large pools of overfed carp, which cruise about, opening their mouths as wide as their heads to make pink tubes for purchased fish food to be tossed into. There are also two beds of roses, and both the fish and the roses are significant reminders of the history of the area.
Here is the story of Abraham, as told to us by our pension host. King Nimrod had a dream, in which it was prophesied that a baby would one day kill him and his armies. To counter this, he ordered all babies to be killed. Abraham was hidden in a cave for the first seven to ten years of his life. When he emerged, to a land of no contemporaries, he returned to his family. His father was a sculptor and young Abraham saw that his father was making idols for King Nimrod. He stole his father’s workshop key and went in at night to destroy the statues. Apparently he did not own up and tried to blame things on soldiers, but his guilt was established. King Nimrod was angry and wanted to know how there was a boy of that age. All was revealed. Now we have a time lapse with no explanation, but we jump to King Nimrod attempting to burn Abraham in a fire. God told him not to stress, and he changed the flames to water and the wood to fish. Next Nimrod tossed Abraham off the mountain. We know the site and there is a sheer drop, so death would have been guaranteed. Luckily for Abraham, God ensured that he would land in a bed of roses and not be hurt. Hence the pools of carp that no-one may catch and the beds of roses that must be tended.Many people were impressed and followed Abraham, and eventually King Nimrod was killed and his armies were destroyed. Later God gave Abraham the ultimate test of faith by asking him to sacrifice his son, Ishmael. Abraham was prepared to do it and Ishmael agreed, so that he could obey his father and his father could obey God. Abraham was trying to kill Ishmael, but the knife, which could cut a stone in half, could not cut Ishmael’s soft throat. Abraham’s faith had been proven and Ishmael was allowed to live.
We had trouble finding Abraham’s childhood cave, but when we were taken there, it was where we had started off. We often have this kind of meander when we are given assistance but we don’t have enough language to quite work things out. Today we were guided by two different kind school boys who asked us if they could practise their English with us.
There are two entries into Abraham’s cave – one for men and one for women. It is a holy place where people come to pray. Inside, the area where women could go was in part of the cave with a glass partition allowing you to see the rest. The cave was quite large with a high ceiling and a couple of sections, quite comfortable really. Women were praying and talking. I sat quietly for a while and turned my thoughts to God and Abraham.
We ventured into the bazaar, which is a maze of tiny shops in narrow alleys and specially built bazaar buildings, some built by Suleyman the Great in the 16th century. We were amazed to see so many fabric shops, with many specialising in materials that Australians would use for evening wear – sheers with sequins or embroidered patterns and rich velvets. Who could be wearing them? So far the long overcoat was much in evidence despite the temperature being in the high twenties, and there were some people in western dress, although most had long skirts and scarves. The most beautiful shade of vivid mauve is favoured by many for scarves, usually with delicate white or silver embroidery on them. We were told that it is worn by choice by some Kurds as a special colour, but someone else said that it is just a fashion fad. Men and women wear it. Some men wear a black and white scarf similar to ones we saw in Egypt.
Beyond the bazaar, the lanes in the older section of the town wove between tall sandstone buildings with closed doors leading into them. Some small shops sat a metre and a half from each other across a road, and in some places crazy motorists thought they could make it through. Every building is joined to the next. Everything is cream or grey – the dusty broken paving and the endless walls. It was exciting and a bit like finding ourselves in a medieval city all of a sudden.
On the way back to our pension, we were greeted by a man, Cesayir, who asked us if we would like to come to his art classes the next day to see a special form of Islamic art. He also asked us what we were doing for dinner, and what we planned to do for the next few days. He mentioned that if we liked his art work, when he is an expert we could invite him to Australia and he could teach it to Australians. While this was probably just friendliness, different cultural conversational forms and networking, it felt a little full on for the first two minutes of a conversation when you have just been ‘picked up’. He walked with us towards our pension and showed us the site of a mosaic that has just been excavated. It is of an Amazon, and the whole site is completely covered with white plastic and guarded.For tea we had a dip made of zucchinis, and an egg and tomato dish, accompanied by very thin flat bread made by our hostess. Later she showed us the flat hotplate, about 60cm in diameter, which is used to cook it. It is kept up on the flat roof area and is fuelled with wood. Three women get together to produce the bread, taking a full day making an enormous pile to last for weeks in a day. Made of flour, water and salt, it is kneaded into a soft dough. The first woman weighs it out into balls, the second woman rolls it until it is about a millimetre thick and the third woman cooks it. It is lifted onto the fire on a stick like a broom handle, and the stick is used to keep turning it for about a minute, when it is finished and tossed over onto a pile. The pile is kept under cloths and watered to keep it from going crisp. In winter it can last for months. This bread is only eaten at lunch and dinner.
Our host is keen for us to go on a tour of the surrounding area with him but it is over A$200 for one day and we will have to think about it.
Fashions in the park: The baggy pants effect is common for older men in the east of Turkey, but, from our observations, is rarely worn by anyone under about 50.
The mauve scarf is very popular in Şanlıurfa and is worn by both young and old women. Some men also wear scarves and this man is sticking with the currently fashionable colour. We did not see any young men wearing this style of scarf.
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