We began our journey further east into the ancient plateau of Tur Abdin, heartland of the Syriac Christian Church but home now to a dwindling number of Christians. For those who really want to know, the Syriac Church resulted from a split from the Council of Chalcedon in the sixth century – it was apparently the result of a long and complex debate about Christ and whether or not he was human and divine, or just divine.
Anyway, we visited the monastery of Mar Gabriel, founded in AD 397, the oldest Syriac monastery in Turkey and the home of the metropolitan bishop of Tur Abdin. We weren’t sure what we were seeing because the explanations were in Turkish but it was all extremely old – though I suspect the crosses in the opening picture came a long time later!
The script was extraordinary – this was taken from two tombs in the crypts:
We then drove to Hasankeyf to look at the dam on the Tigris (so we really have seen the Euphrates and the Tigris now!). The dam has been highly controversial because the ancient city with its Seljuk, Arab and Kurdish remains was flooded in 2020 by the waters of the dam. Although many buildings – and the entire population – were moved higher up, it isn’t the same for anyone.
But the dam is very beautiful:
And finally to Batman – no really! – where we are staying overnight escaping the tourists in Mardin.
The town grew rapidly from the 1950s when oil was discovered and it now has the largest oil field in Turkey. It’s a wealthy city with lots of neon and glitz as you’ll see from the stunning and appropriate street architecture below.
I’m wondering what the countryside that you are driving through is like. Am wondering how if there intensive agriculture, how is it farmed, if at all?
The countryside has been, maybe as you’d expect, very varied. Today we drove through beautiful mountains ( snow capped) and wooded valleys, lots of sheep and goats and cultivation in forms of small fields but for the past few days on the huge plains that stretch south to Syria there are much bigger fields of wheat and maize, plus huge plantations of pistachio trees round Gazientep. It’s all definitely cultivated ( which was the purpose I think of the controversial dam project). Hope this helps a bit….
Thankyou Sue for the update on the landscape, now for some pictures of food and the coverage of this lovely tour will be complete. So pleased to know that historical rivers are alive and well amongst human ruins, and that your meetings with Turkish people are so enjoyable.
Nice to hear from you, Lian! Food pictures will definitely feature soon – the food on the whole has been delicious and very photogenic!
Is the population a combination of Christians and Muslims?
Not really – majority Muslim by a long way, the few Christian congregations very small I think. No sign of the Jews ( apart from the Mikva we came across in the Hammam Museum way back in Gazientep).
Mar Gabriel looks amazing. We are both, it appears, in oil towns! Baku has been producing oil for centuries and in the 19th century Azerbaijan was the largest oil producer in the world. Seen a lot of those oil wells though not, strangely, lit up!
Excellent news that we were both in oil towns! We didn’t really see much of Batman apart from its rather fabulous neon decs – hope Baku is ( or indeed was – you may well have moved on) enjoyable and not too oily.
Spectacular photos – the dam and the ancient, anyway.
Thanks, Tash – trip continues to surprise me- more sights to come from Lake Van!
A lot of what you describe reminds me of descriptions in David Graeber and David Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything: the archaeological remains of ways of living, perhaps experimenting with other power structures. All of this is wonderful for knowledge, imaginations and no doubt for your pleasures of viewing. I love this part of the world, though have only seen Armenia… Carry on!
I love your enthusiasm Elizabeth! We’ll continue to do our best to surprise and enthrall – today we went on a boat to an island in Lake Van to see a very old church – pictures and commentary tomorrow!
Finally caught up with you two – and ps loved the enthusiastic music at Mardin. The Mar Gabriel monastery and mosaics are really special (I’m reading William Dalrymple’s From the Holy Mountain just now, about his monastic travels near where you are). The neon oil derrick is just the thing for Alberta to contemplate as they decide whether to separate from Canada – I’m sending your post to an Alberta friend!
We had a very nice dinner in downtown Batman and the restaurant use an oil derrick as a decorative theme and there’s a whole shopping mall called, I think, Oil Plaza ( let’s look on the bright side, it could have been called Drill, baby). So many opportunities for Alberta – twinning with Batman and Baku?