So we left Khata in a hurry and made our way via Adiyaman to Sanliurfa checking in to the Cicik Palas hotel at positively the cheapest rate achieved in the whole time I was in Turkey - just 5,000TL per night! The first hotel I stayed in when I arrived in Istanbul cost 50,000TL.
Sanliurfa is described as being next to the Euphrates but it just south of the Attaturk Baraj and the 2,072km longest river in the Near East passes to the west of this city.
This is Old Testament country. Abraham is said to have been born here. Not only is it reputed to be the birthplace of Abraham but also Job, Elijah and Jethro lived there. Moses lived in the region for 7 years. I had to remind myself about Jethro. He was Moses' father-in-law. Moses married Jethro's daughter Zipporah after having to flee Egypt for killing an Egyptian who had been beating a Hebrew slave. Moses worked for Jethro as a shepherd for 40 years before returning to Egypt to lead the Israelites to Canaan. So it is written.
I really liked the very short time we were in Sanliurfa. It was a very peaceful place. It goes without saying that it hasn't always been peaceful. Once known as Edessa, everyone who was anyone has been though here. Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Byzantines and Crusaders. One of my sources for background information on the places I visited is www.allaboutturkey.com which says "The city was finally sacked by the Kurdish Zengi dynasty in 1146. Following the standard Mongol conquest of the Middle East, ancient Edessa disappeared from history in the 13th century, reemerging only in the present century. Thanks for its survival should go to the local population who brilliantly resisted French attempts to include it in greater Syria during Ottoman period. Like many of the other towns which offered resistance at the time of War of Liberation, Urfa has received the honorific "Sanli" (Honored) to append to its name." I particularly like the phrase "Following the standard Mongol conquest.." It conjures up a sort of inevitability that the Mongols would have and did conquer the place. They laid waste to it in 1270 and it never recovered.
Practically the first place we visited was the cave where it is said that Abraham was born. Very good value at 1000TL. There's a spring in the cave and you can (and I did) take a drink of the water that rises up there. If the water has any special properties then I hope I have benefited from them.
Abraham was quite a thorn in the side of the authorities in his home town. The ruler of the city at the time was King Nimrod who was worshipped like a God. It is said that after Abraham had caused trouble at a temple dedicated to Nimrod and broke up idols there, Nimrod decided to punish him by catapulting him into a huge fire. The two tall corinthian columns that overlook the city where the castle stood were used to make the catapult.
Abraham was hurled into the fire but it was instantly replaced by a large pool and the firewood was turned into fish. Abraham was saved! This story seems to have been left out of the Old Testament as we know it. The place where this happened is called the Balikli Gol, literally "Fish Pond". A picture appears below followed by a picture of the descendents of those pieces of firewood that were turned into fish.
My notes tell me that some time was spent in a Cay Bacesi drinking tea. I remember being sort of pestered by a guy who said he was a Kurdish refugee from Iraq. He drank his tea in the traditional fashion by holding the lump of sugar between his teeth and drinking through it. Is is worth saying he had very bad teeth?
I remember that our evening meal was a picnic of sorts. We visited a communal/community bakery and bought some delicious bread straight out of the oven. In the bakery there were people queuing to have their home prepared food put in the oven.
The next morning I had the best breakfast I have ever had. This is the reason for my reference to the land of milk and honey in the title to this posting. I don't know if I have ever mentioned it before but the bread in Turkey is simply the tastiest white bread I've ever tasted. It is always as fresh as bread could be (probably baked in a bakery just like the one we'd been to the day the before). For breakfast in Sanliurfa I had black tea (as usual) with a plate of that lovely fresh white bread, cream and honey. Honestly it was fantastic. So simple but so delicious.
Our next port of call was Harran. I don't know where I picked up the information sheet pictured below but it is very informative. Give it a click to enlarge it and have a read.
Okay, the typing is not the best in the world and nor is some of the grammar or spelling. Nonetheless it gives a good history. There's mention of Tamerlaine (Tamburlaine) whom you wouldn't wish on anyone. From the pictures below it looked as if he had just been through.
Abraham lived here. It says so in Genesis Chapter 11:
31: And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.
32: And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.
This is the Chapter which mentions the Tower of Babel and sets out the generations of Shem, who begat whom, how old they were at the time and how long they lived afterwards. Perhaps some scholar has already explained how it comes about that Shem seems to have lived for 600 years. If you read the verses life seems to get shorter as you proceed through the generations. All the same, Abraham's father who died in Haran managed a good innings of 205 years.
In the light of the fact that this part of the world has a history such as it set out above I have to say I am surprised anyone lived anything approaching a long life.
If Harran looked like it did in my photographs then it is no surprise that Abraham took himself and his family to Canaan. It looks pretty bleak to me.
Perhaps Rudiger and I were there at the wrong time of year. The picture in my Guide to Eastern Turkey shows it in a better light and perhaps it explains why it might have been an attractive place to live. The agriculture looks good.
As Fred Schneider sang "There's a lot of ruins in Mesopotamia" and 5,000 years old Harran has a great many that are still in the process of being discovered. There used to be a very old pagan temple dedicated to the Moon God Sin, given that Harran was a center of Mesopotamian idolatry during centuries. The worship of the moon, sun and planets continued until the 9th century AD, a long time after the Omeyyad Caliph Merwan II made Harran its capital and the Grand Mosque was built (744-750). For this reason, the science of astronomy was quite advanced here and under the rule of the Abbassids, Harran became famous for its Islamic university, founded by Harun Rashid, where many theologians, scholars and scientists studied.
The eastern gate of the university is still standing as is the 33 m / 108 ft high square minaret made of stone and brick of the monumental Grand Mosque, first built in the 8th century, was restored and enlarged in the 12th century and bears both Omeyyad and Seljuk style ornaments.
Given the age of the place and the strange beehive dwellings originally dating from the early 19th Century it was worth a visit. It is just a shame that the Mongols made such a mess of the place.
For the second time we cadged a lift back with a tour. 10.00 o'clock the next day we got the bus to Gaziantep. I left a blue Levi denim jacket on the bus.
