We’re only about three days into our thirteen-day road trip around central and eastern Turkey, and already I feel like I’ve seen more of this country than I have of my own.  We have a pretty packed itinerary with various stops at archaeological sites and museums around the country, all of which have been truly incredible.  Yesterday we trekked over to Zeugma – a bridge constructed by Alexander the Great in 300 BC that once spanned the Euphrates River.  Due to recent damming of the river, the site is no longer visible (and the ridiculously remarkable mosaics found there are off-site at a museum in Gaziantep – which we saw, of course).  The landscape there though is beautiful.  It was excruciatingly hot yesterday – it spiked up to 44 degrees Celsius, which converts to approximately one billion degrees Fahrenheit – so when we decided to take a dip in the Euphrates (jeans and all), we finally felt a welcome moment of relief.   We then realized that we had passed a sign that said “No trespassing” in Turkish, so apparently our swim was an illegal one.  We live on the edge.

We then bussed off to Sunliurfa, the alleged birthplace of Abraham.  We took a walking tour of the bustling city, pausing at the sacred site of one of Abraham’s stories (King Nimrod wanted to kill him, and proceeded to fling him off a nearby mountain onto a great fire.  Luckily for Abraham, God went ahead and turned the fire into water, and the logs into fish.  Abraham was a-ok, and I’m sure King Nimrod felt like a total nimrod).  The area, which included a grand mosque, as well as an entryway to the cave where Abraham was born, had several rectangular ponds in which sacred carp (representing the log�fish thing) swam, and were constantly being fed by eager children and their families.  The city had a strong Arab feel, as most of the women were covered in the traditional black cloths, and the men wore salvars – traditional Arab baggy pants (the crotch area is way down by their ankles in most cases).  The action and strong sense of religious wonder in Sunliurfa was so exciting for me to witness, and from all the looks that our group attracted, I’d say we were pretty exciting for the Turks there as well.

Today we set off from Sunliurfa to an impressive archaeological site nearby – Gobekli Tepe, the site of the first known temple in human history (and often said the Garden of Eden by the tourist industry’s hope to stir up excitement about this still little-known site).  I was especially excited to see this site, as it is the topic of my huge research paper for my course, my oral presentation (which I delivered a few days ago), and my GPS/GIS map I have to create.  Over the past few weeks, Gobekli Tepe and I have become very close, despite the fact that Gobekli Tepe is about 11,000 years old as compared to my wimpy 19.  But age is just a number, after all.  Actually getting to see the site for myself, to set foot at the location I’ve read a great deal about and seen only in pictures, was very rewarding.  And hey – I even got to meet the Kurdish shepherd who discovered the site back in 1994 and thus got the ball rolling on the site excavation (and yes, I have a lovely photo with Mehret as well).  I felt like a budding archaeologist as I traipsed around the area, observing the grand stone structures and taking GPS points (which I will later enter into the GIS computer program to create a map of the site).  Just call me Indian Jones.

We then loaded back into the bus, stopped at a few other sites, and then embarked on a fairly long ride up through a mountainous area with scattered villages, narrow roads without guard rails (and they definitely needed guardrails! There were several heart-pounding moments, like when we nudged our way past a huge truck carrying about 50 trees worth of logs, when I thought our bus was going to plunge into the picturesque valley below (I mean, it was beautiful to look at, but I was happy keeping my distance).  Our final destination was a little hotel near Mt. Nemrut, a mountain with a pretty awesome ancient burial ground at its peak – we’ll be waking up bright and early tomorrow to hike up to the top.  I’m praying for NOT another 44 degree day.

Location: Sunliurfa, Turkey