Month: November 2019

We were not prepared for the cultural shock when we got to Cairo. It wouldn’t be so striking had we been to Egypt first. But we visited Turkey before and that raised our expectations. If Turkey was clean, well-organized and hospitable; Egypt is filthy, chaotic and over-populated.

Cairo’s twenty-five million inhabitants are said to “simultaneously crushing the city’s infrastructure under their collective weight and lifting its spirits up with their exceptional charm and humor.”

We got picked up at the airport by the representatives of our tour company even before the immigration check. One of them had a bundle of visa stickers with him. It was the first time ever I had seen anyone other than an official issuing visa.

We were packed in a bus where our Egyptian guide welcomed us. He is a well-educated man (a qualified Egyptologist) in his late thirties who has a vast knowledge about Egyptian history and temples, as we found out later.

After a night’s rest at the hotel, the next morning, our guide took us straight to the pyramids of Giza. Constructed more than four thousand years ago, the three giant structures were visible from everywhere in Cairo. The largest pyramid, called the Great Pyramid is 146 meters high and was constructed in 2570 BC for the Pharaoh Khufu’s of the 4th dynasty.

The second pyramid is of son Khafre and seems larger than that of his father’s because it is on a higher plinth. Its peak is still capped with original polishes limestone casting.

The third pyramid is of Pharaoh Menkaure and is the smallest of the trio (62m). It is said that back in the day they were covered by gold and were visible from miles.

I, however, was not impressed with them. Mainly because they didn’t look as high as they show them in photos. Also in photos, the color of the stone is white, with most of the casting gone, the earthly colored stone doesn’t stand out in front of the sand background.

Seeing the pyramids up close was a challenge, too. There were too much dirt and too many people. Yet we did manage to climb up to the entrance of the Great Pyramid and take some pictures. To my disappointment, they were not very clear due to mist (and pollution) which cleared up a bit with time but didn’t completely go away.

Next to the pyramids, in the same complex, is the Sphinx. The Sphinx is a structure that usually has the head of a man and the body of an animal. This one is the biggest Sphinx ever build in Egypt and has the head of the king Khafre (of the second pyramid) and body of a lion and it stands to guard the pyramid complex. When it was built, it was right on the banks of the Nile and had two temples on the sides to greet visitors.

After spending the morning there, taking pictures touching the tip of the pyramids and doing camel rides we drove for an hour to the ruins of 5000 thousand years old city of Memphis which was the seat of power for the most the Pharaonic period.

Now the only evidence of Memphis’ glory is a colossal red granite statue of Ramses II which was found face down at the exact location where it is now turned on its back.

The drive was an eye-opener. There were piles of rubbish everywhere. Most of the buildings were covered in dirt and were unfinished. Apparently, Egyptian people do not finish their houses ( which are usually multi-story as they keep on adding new floors for the next generation) to save taxes. The cars were mostly old and covered in dirt, waterways had rubbish floating in them.

Not far from Memphis is a 7km stretch of the desert known as Saqqara were we able to inside the pyramid of Pharaoh Teti (sixth dynasty). The entrance shaft was just one meter high and about ten meters long leading to the burial chamber, which was empty. The mummy was long gone, looted by the grave robbers. The chamber had hieroglyphics carved on the walls and the stars on the roof.

Did I get an eerie feeling while there?

There was hardly any time to feel anything, other than being amazed at the architecture and skills of humans five thousand years ago.

Photography was not allowed inside Teti’s tomb but in the next tomb, which was his priest’s tomb we were able to take several photos of relics in original colors.

The next day we visited Muhammad Ali Pasha’s mosque who gave an obelisk from the Luxor Temple to French king Louis Phillipein exchange for a mechanical clock that didn’t work. It was still there mounted on one of the terraces of the mosque. Completed in 1900, the mosque has much better architecture and carving but is in terrible condition. The stone has eroded, at many places the whole alabaster plaques were missing.

From there we drove to central Cairo which was much cleaner and had better buildings. Egyptian Museum is near Midan Tahrir, where millions of Egyptian oust their president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

On the way, we drove past the City of Dead where people are living in old tombs. Unable to afford houses, they are using these well-constructed structures like houses. These have been evacuated now but we could still see some with satellite dishes.

Museum was something where you could spend hours. It was full of scrophages, statues, mummies, and treasures discovered from excavations all around Egypt. They have 150 thousand articles and not enough space. A new museum is near completion which will house the most of the collection.

We concentrated on a few key exhibits, one being the boy king Tutumkhamn. He became the king at the age of nine and died at the age of nineteen. The discovery of his tomb was significant because his was the only tomb of a pharaoh that was found intact. His inner cask is made of 110 kilograms of pure gold.

We also saw mummies of Yuya and Thuya whose skin, hair and nails were still intact.

The last stop of the day was Khan el-Khalili market which is the largest market I have ever seen anywhere. Being a Friday the crowds were phenomenal. We had great coffee and Egyptian pizza and bread and had an early night for a six o’clock start to Luxor the next day.

We reached Cappadocia at night and checked in the hotel which was nothing like any hotel we had stayed in before.

The rooms were like caves, low ceiling, archways, dim lights, antique furniture. Our room was like a little house with a separate living room, bedroom and massive bathroom with stain glass door.

Cappadocia landscape was formed by the eruption of two volcanoes. The rocks here have many natural caves. People have been living here for thousands of years. The caves made a perfect hiding place from invaders.

Many Christians, after the crucifixion of Christ, found refuge here from Romans. Here they were free to practice their religion. They soon made monasteries in the caves and carved out more caves to make churches.

An estimate is that there are 600 churches in Cappadocia. They are not big churches known to the western world but a small one for family or individual praying. Some of them have beautifully ocher painting on their walls and ceilings.

In Turkish Cappadocia means “the land of beautiful horses.” The Cappadocia horses were known for their beauty and strength which was surprising due to the grass the grazed on this dry and rugged land which was believed to be rich in protein and minerals.

We visited the underground city of caves which were used mainly for hiding some times for weeks. It had stables to hide the animals, storage space for food and wine and the number of rooms. There are about eighty such as underground cities in the area. Recently a new city has been excavated under a slum which is believed to be the largest city. It could accommodate twenty thousand people, which gives an idea of the population at that time.

The different rock formations have different shapes. The one below is called Fairy Chimney. They are formed when then the harder stone at the top erodes over time exposing the softer stone which collapses.

Cappadocia is a large area inhabited by a number of small villages whose main source of income is tourism. A lot of the caves are part of the National Park but some are still owned by individuals. These caves are in high demand for making hotels and restaurants. They can fetch millions of dollars for the owner.

There is no local living in the caves now. Most of the people abandoned them for the houses by 1980s. But we visited a 180 years old pottery place which was all underground cave. Even though it had proper light, phone connection, and the internet, the air was damp and suffocating that I couldn’t stay there any longer. One of the attendants who was showing us pottery was suffering from cold for being in that environment constantly.

The highest hill in the Nevşehir (the place where our hotel was) has an old castle on top of it which was a watchtower in the olden times.

This was our last day in Turkey. We flew first from Cappadocia to Istanbul and then from Istanbul to Cairo, Egypt.

We started super early today. The drive from Pamukkale to Cappadocia was about 800 kilometers driving past the Pamukkale terraces where lots of balloons were lifting off in time for sunrise.

The landscape was different from what we had seen so far. No more cotton fields or olive trees but lots of pine plantations. There were some hills but soon the disappeared too and the landscape became flat and baron.

Two hours later we stopped for coffee and toilet break. The place had a very nice quality textile, health products and souvenirs. One of the best souvenirs to take home is the ‘Evil Eye,’ the blue colored eye believed to be the eye of the sky by the old Shamanism belief. It is called ‘Nazar’ and is used to wade off the evil spirits.

Outside there were several trucks of sugarbeets, which had white skin but would turn red when boiled. Potatoes come in two colors as well – white and yellow, yellow one tastes much better than white. Turkish cook their potatoes and eggplants very well.

A stinky smell filled the bus and continued to linger on. It was from a shallow lake that fills up in winter but was half dry and muddy in autumn.

We crossed many small villages on the way. Turkish people are very hospitable to their guests but not very welcoming to the new settlers in their villages. Most of the time the villages are all related. They don’t have any fence around their houses. People can knock on each other’s houses and can walk in any time. A house is always ready for a guest.

The land around the village is owned by the villagers. It was given to them centuries ago. The owners sell the land to each other within the village. It gets passed on to the children on his death. Male and female children have an equal share.

Turkey is a Muslim country ( 99% of the population is Muslim) but is not governed by sharia law. A man can’t divorce his wife by saying “I divorce you” three times. A divorce can only be granted by the court. The ratio of arranged and love marriages was fifty-fifty in the previous generation. Now ninety percent of the marriages are love marriages.

The gay people are accepted in society since the Ottoman period ( early nineteen hundred) but gay marriages are not accepted. It is in fact very easy for gay people from neighboring Islamic countries to migrate to Turkey. All they have to do is to declare their sexuality and say the feel unsafe in their own country.

We made a small stop to see a marble query. Turkey has a lot of marble. All the hills around us are of marble and had small queries here and there.

We are crossing the orchards of cherry trees. Turkey is the second biggest producer of cherries after Japan.

Surprisingly Turkey’s biggest industry is car production. Because of the cheap labor, political stability and proximity to Europe, European companies prefer to make their cars in Turkey. Turkey is now working on making their own car, one hundred percent made in Turkey. They already make locally made jeeps, buses, and trucks but not cars.

The second largest industry is mining. Turkey exports a lot of marble and copper. Number three is chemicals or textiles. Tourism comes at number four. The average number of tourists is 40 – 45 million each year, It is much below 70 million in France, Spain, and Italy.

We reached Konya around lunchtime and had the traditional Konyan lunch of lentil soup, pide bread, meat casserole, and rice served on a hot iron plate and baklava like a dessert.

Konya was founded by Romans in the second century as Iconium (from where the word Icon comes from). It is the origin place of Mevlevi Order (Sufism) founded by the follower of Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi known to the Western world simply as Rumi. Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet, Sufi mystic, and Islamic theologize. We visited the Mevlevi Museum which was the old madrasa and has the tomb of Rumi. The museum is visited by one million people each year.

The Konyan people are practicing Muslims and conservative compared to the rest of the country. We saw more women with burqa than any other place during our long journey through the country. Also, there is no bar, no nightclub, no nightlife in this city of one million people.

What it is famous for is the whirling Dervish who wears a white robe and long cap and swirls around in a meditative way to soft music with one hand up towards the sky and other towards the earth depicting their connection with the divine and sharing of knowledge with earthly beings.

Our last comfort stop before reaching Cappadocia was near the one of the largest and well preserved ‘caravanserai.’ Built in the 13th century these caravanserais provided comfort and protection to the traders passing through these trade routes.

Today was a slow start. We were not expected to leave till nine and hence we had plenty of time to have lavish breakfast. The food in Turkey is plentiful. Everywhere we have been given lots of fresh salads, a variety of dips, bread, meat, and desserts. In spite, though there was an abundance of food the men in our group would have killed for bacon.

After saying goodbye to a nice hotel, Suhan360, ( which indeed had the 360 degrees views of the coast) we started our journey towards Pamukkale. The first two and half hours were quiet, many were catching up with their sleep.

The landscape was beautiful. All through the way, there were fields of cotton and sunflower and orchards of figs, oranges, mandarins, lemons, and pomegranates. Turkey is the biggest producer of pomegranates. Most of them come from the region, Anatolia. They are big, juicy and blood-red in color but their juice is a bit on the sour side. Turkey is also a big producer of chestnuts, apricots, and figs.

We reached Pamukkale around mid-day. The hotel Pam Thermal Resort had a thermal pool right in the middle courtyard, which had mineral-rich natural spring water gushing from a canon like structure and falling from one terrace to another. The temperature of the water must be around eighty degrees.

After lunch, we headed towards the Pamukkale terraces. I wore three-quarter pants and thongs (a big mistake because it was quite a walk and my thongs were not very comfortable).

Pamukkale means “cotton castle” in Turkish, an appropriate name for the hill covered in calcium and other minerals brought by the water from underneath. Since the water trickles down from one terrace to another at a slow speed, the minerals get time to settle down and solidify. If the water was flowing at a higher speed the terraces wouldn’t have formed and minerals wouldn’t have deposited.

This is the only formation of this kind in the world. There was one more in NewZealand but it got destroyed in a volcano eruption in early nineteen hundred.

In 300 BC Roman established a town here called Hierapolis. Although there were only a few structures remained of the town, it was a flourishing town with health spas and cotton trade.

We walked on the prickly and at some places slippery surface to get to the lower terraces. From each point the view was different. With the number of people walking on sharp edges iris miracle that nobody has fallen off the cliff and got seriously hurt.

At many places, the water was directed to the drains and the terraces were intentionally kept dried to save them getting too much calcium deposits. Although in summers, because of the sheer numbers of tourists all the terraces are full.

We sat with our legs in gushing water letting the hot and mineral water wash away the tiredness and pain. There is a lovely garden all around the top of the hill worth a walk.

Coming back to the hotel we all sat in the thermal pool and rub the mud on our faces as a face pack.

Pamukkale has very nice markets with a lot of well-priced souvenirs, dried figs, apricots chestnuts and woolen, and cotton clothes.

After spending a day in the City of Troy and Acropolis in Pergamon, we drove to Kusadasi. Kusadasi is a coastal town developed from old villages and new resorts. We reached there at night and were greeted by a beautiful view of the harbor.

If we thought the night view of the harbor was beautiful, the morning sun reflecting on the rainbow houses on the hill was breathtaking. Unfortunately, the picture below doesn’t do full justice to it, but you can still spot the houses painted in green, blue, purple, and yellow.

I later found out that the houses on the hill were, in fact, the slum of Kusadasi. The Gypsies settled on the hill a long time ago and started building mud houses. When Kuşadası expanded, the municipality decided to paint the houses (for free) to make them look presentable to the ever-increasing tourists.

There are a lot of Gypsies in Turkey, and they are the citizens of the country. Unlike the Gypsies in neighboring countries, they have the proper paperwork and enjoy the same rights as Turkish people.

Kusadasi is close to the famous old Roman city of Ephesus. Just like Pergamon, Ephesus was also founded by one of the twelve generals of Alexander the Great, Lysimachos, in the fourth century BCE. After his death, it went to the Romans without any bloodshed.

At its peak, Ephesus was the second-largest city in the world and the second capital of Rome outside of Rome. Two hundred and fifty thousand people lived here, which is equivalent to five million people in today’s age.

It is believed that only 25% of those were free. 75% were slaves.

Ephesus is one of the best-preserved ancient sites in the world. The archeological digging at this site has been going on for one hundred years, and still, only a portion of the city has been excavated. 

Ephesus has a tem

Ephesus has a temple of Artemis, a Curetes Street, and Roman baths. 

It also has two Odeons and a huge amphitheater with a capacity of 25,000. 

However, the main attractions of the city are the three-story-high library. It was the third largest library in the world after Alexandria and the Acropolis of Pergamon.

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The house of the Virgin Mary

After Ephesus, we visited the house where the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, was taken to after the sacrifice of Christ by Saint John and lived there for the remainder of her earthly life. This Catholic shrine is located on Mt. Koressos, just 7 kilometers away from Ephesus.

The house was discovered in the 19th century following the descriptions in the reported visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774–1824), a Roman Catholic nun and visionary. (Source: Wikipedia)

Although the Catholic Church has never pronounced in favor or against the house’s authenticity, the site is revered by Christians and receives a steady flow of pilgrimage each year. 

I was mesmerized by the serenity of the place. The house was made entirely of stone, was small, just three rooms, and was rebuild in the sixth century. It was rebuilt several times after that to repair the damage caused by earthquakes and weather elements.

It had a baptism pool, natural spring water, and a wishing wall where people tied their wishes.

Although I am not a Christian, nor a religious person, I felt some special energy there. Some places have that spiritual aura about them. This place was one of them. It could be the collective vibes of the pilgrims or the continuous recitation of the bible, and I felt a special connection to the place.

Silk Factory

We stopped by to see the ancient art of uncoiling the silk from cocoons at a carpet gallery on the way back. 

As a part of a well-planned operation to support the local economy (by selling costly handmade carpets to tourists), we were received an army of very polite and welcoming sales assistants.

Many fellow travelers fell prey to their sales tactics. Thankfully both my husband and I could keep our restrain and didn’t buy anything.

Leather fashion house

From the silk factory, we were taken to a leather fashion house. 

There we were treated to a fashion parade in a theatre specifically made for the purpose. Model after model walked the ramp on lively and high-pitched music. 

After the fashion show, an experienced salesman gave a well-sales pitch telling us about the advantage and quality of the garment. The lights were dim. We were tired. But the whole room burst into laughter when one of the guests started snoring in the middle of the speech. 

Village of Sirince

From the planned visit to the carpet and leather factories, we were taken to the old village of Sirince and were given free rein to explore it. It was the best time of the day for me. I explored the ancient jewelry shops where artisans were creating exquisite jewelry items from silver and local stones. We walked uphill on cobblestone alleyways, checking shops, trying pomegranate juice and local ice cream. 

The village dates back to the 19th century and has original white-painted houses. It is known for producing some of the best wines from fruit. In my life, I had not seen the stacks and stacks of pomegranates, quince, and dried figs.

In the evening, we witnessed a breathtaking sunset from our room.

Next week I will write about Pamukkale

After a long tiring day in Gallipoli, we woke up early the next morning and checked out from our hotel in Çanakkale to head for the archeological site of Troy.

If you are surprised that the famous ancient city of Troy is in Turkey, you are not the only one. A history lover, I was astounded and excited to visit the city made famous by Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.

Even though the weather forecast showed a clear and warm day, it turned out to be a fiercely cold and windy day.

Once we reached the site, our guide Ahmed gathered us and prepared us for what we were about to see. 

“You all know the story of Helen of Troy and the Trojan horse,” he said. “But you perhaps don’t know that Troy is a 5000-year-old city and was resettled nine times. The excavation shows nine levels of construction of rock and mud-brick walls, built one upon another, making it really confusing to understand which part belongs to which era.”

He continued, “Just to give a context to how old the city was, the story of Helen and the Trojan horse happened during the sixth settlement of the city.”

It was a massive site. We walked around for more than two hours, witnessing the remains of once a prosperous and important city by the harbor. Many archeologists believe that the city lost its significance when the sea receded. But, there was a time; the harbor was right next to the walled city. We could see from the highest point at the site that the ocean was quite far away.

Troy is not only famous for its nine meters high wall but also for its ingenious architecture for collecting and distributing water and heavy war machinery. 

Interesting Story about the discovery of Troy

For a long time, the city of Troy was believed to be a mythical city until a German treasure hunter found it with the help of locals. 

Even when he was a child, Heinrich Schliemann was fascinated by the story of wooden horses and soldiers hiding in it. He believed that if the Trojan war really happened, the people wouldn’t have had the chance to move the treasury. Since the Greeks didn’t find any treasure, that means it was still there somewhere. His persistence paid off. He found the city of Troy but no treasure. 

Schliemann did find some gold jewelry but not from the Helen of Troy period but 1200 years before that.

Treasures discovered from the site are now in nine different museums globally, including the St Petersburg of Russia.

While researching for this article., I found another interesting fact—this time about the lady in the signpost.

When Schliemann decided to search for Troy, he realized that he would need a personal assistant with knowledge of Greek history and culture. He even put an advert that he was looking for a wife in an Athenian newspaper. His bride was a relative of the Archbishop of Athens. Her name was Sophia Engastromenos, and when 47-year-old Schliemann married her, she was only 17. Her best-known photo shows her wearing the ancient treasures discovered by Schliemann at Troy. The marriage had three children with highly symbolic names: Andromache, Troy, and Agamemnon. 

Source: Turkish Archeological News

Trojan Horse

There was a large model wooden horse to imitate the famous Trojan Horse on the way out from the site. It didn’t look authentic, but it was fun to go inside and have your photo taken from outside.

Drive to Pergamon

Pergamon was a place where Greek and Turkish lived side by side for centuries. Only recently the final exchange of people happened between two countries.

The drive from Çanakkale to Pergamon was scenic, to say the least. On the right-hand side was the Aegean Sea, while on the left was the mountain range covered with native olive trees. 

The Olive trees are to the Mediterranean like the Eucalyptus trees are to Australia. They grow by themselves. Their average life span is 400 to 500 years. Did you know that the oldest tree in the world is an olive tree that is 2000 years old?

The trees are kept fresh by cutting off the top and grafting it with a younger tree.

The northwest region of Turkey, known as Anatolia, is the summer destination for Turkish people. Small towns peppered the whole area with holiday houses owned by rich and middle-class Turkish families. These houses are occupied just for three months of the year. It is quite common for the older middle class of Turkey to own two houses, a primary home and a summer house or a village house.

We also crossed a number of cotton fields. The textile industry is providing a livelihood to many people, and Turkish cotton is quite sought after.

Acropolis of Pergamon

After lunch, we drove to Pergamon Hill to visit Acropolis, a Greek city established by one of the generals of Alexander the Great. It is 2200 years old city and is a bit better preserved than Troy.

Pergamon’s ancient name was ‘Pergamos’ which means “people of the high city.” It is situated on a hill, and we reached there through a cable car.

With its impressive temples and library Acropolis was a big cultural hub in its heydays. Its library was the second largest in the world after Alexandria. 

We learned Mark Antony gave Cleopatra a substantial number of volumes from the Pergamon library to replace those destroyed by the fire at Alexandria Library, quite possibly because the fire that consumed the library was started on orders by Julius Caesar to burn his own ships in Alexandria harbor as a tactical ploy.

Walking through the ruins makes history come alive. All those historical figures (Helen of Troy, Mark Antony, Cleopatra), which I thought were just legends, were real people who lived in cities and houses just like we do now. It made me appreciate how our actions are judged even thousands of years later.

And our creations survive much longer than us. Look at this beautiful archway at the citadel. Unlike today, people made things to last in those days. 

The acropolis is surrounded by water but to get it uphill. The inhabitants used ingenious ways. They made aqueducts and used the force of water to bring it to the acropolis.

After the death of the last Greek general, Pergamon was passed on to Romans without any conflict. However, Romans didn’t like its location. Mainly because Pergamon was not a harbor city. Roman slowly abandoned Pergamon and moved to Ephesus. 

I loved visiting both the sites. But I didn’t know a bigger treat awaited me the next day. We were going to visit Ephesus.