Episode 22

Back in Georgia we mainly back tracked over roads we've been along previously. It was surprising to see how much autumn has progressed towards the bleakness of winter in less than 3 weeks. The trees that were just beginning to colour have mostly lost their leaves leaving just bare branches.

To save going all the way back to Batumi we headed for the border crossing near Vale, this would save us a lot of back tracking in Turkey as we are hoping to get to the Mt Ararat area. We did get some sunshine in Georgia for a few hours then we were back into fog and low heavy cloud. Spent a good while at the border crossing because D hadn’t got his 'green card’ for the car insurance. He’d paid for it but they had failed to send it and D didn’t realize this until we were at the Turkish border the first time back on 1st September. However, at that crossing the customs man just accepted D’s insurance number but the fellow on this border post wanted the card. So after several phone calls that cost all the credit we had on the mobile, Heather doing us lots of favours, and 101 texts back and forth the insurance people faxed the green card to the border post and 6 or more hours after first arriving we finally set off again on the Turkish side.

Soon we were wending our way up and over yet another pass, this one 2550m then down to Lake Ҫildir near the Armenian border. As in much of Georgia and Armenia the mountains are treeless expect for a few small areas of plantation pine. The roads have improved, the villages look more prosperous, and the road construction is in full swing, 50k’s or more at a time. The amount of rubbish spread all around and the number of starving stray dogs remains about the same.

In Kars we had a look at the castle that dates for the 12th century though we think its had a great deal of restoration in very recent times. It does give a great view over the city. Below we could see the basalt bridge and two bathhouses that are both ruins. There is a church too, from Armenian times that was converted to a mosque but now seems to be just a tourist attraction.

In many of the villages around this area there are ruined churches and we visited a few. Most seem to be in some farmers yard and are used for storing hay or as an animal shelter, even a tractor in one. Most date from the early 10th century.

The ancient city of Ani is near the present day border with Armenia. It was once home to about 100,000 people and covers a very large area. It was an important city on the silk route. Its had quite a colourful history, the first city was built here in the 10th century, as an Armenian Christian city, then in the 12th century it was taken over by Turks that were Muslim, in the 13th century the Mongols captured it and did a great deal of damage then in the 14th century an earthquake compounded the damage of the Mongols and its continued to disintegrate ever since. I too, seem to be on a downhill slide here, I fell over twice, needless to say I’m more grubby than ever and L says she’s not sure I’m fit to be in any more photos. Although there isn’t a great deal to see here it’s fun to walk around and ponder how it once was, with those great caravans trundling in loaded with wares brought all the way from far east. How exciting their arrival must have been with the traders jostling each other to get their hands on all those new and tempting wares, boys rushing to tend to the camels and horses and dusty, weary travellers keen to find the nearest bathhouse and relax.

Our route took us south to Ogdir through the Aras mountains that are starkly beautiful with many jagged peaks. Off in the distance we saw many snowy peaks. From Ogdir we continued south to Dogubayazit, nicknamed doggybiscuit back in the days when it was on the hippy trail to India. L remembers it for the freezing cold night she spent here in mid October 1970. Here, high on the mountain side overlooking the town is the very much restored Ishak Pasa Palace, probably just a heap of rubble back in 1970. We visited this palace and can’t help but wonder why, when it was being restored the authorities didn’t restore the roof too, it couldn’t have cost that much more than the steel and glass roof they did have built, and at least it would have given visitors an idea of how it really looked.

This palace isn’t all that old, it was started in the late 17th century and finished almost 100 years later. Not sure why it got into such a poor state but possibly because it was used as a military barracks in WW1. There is some lovely decorative stone work around the main entrance doors and also in the dining room. The fountain is called the ‘milk’ fountain; it has two taps one had water the other milk, now both only have water: I made a new friend of the man with the souvenir stall, Adam.

Mt Ararat stayed very bashful, hidden under cloud for the duration of our visit. The lower of the two peaks did present itself briefly and D took a quick snap. Again we headed south over more passes, the next one at 2602m with fog, sleet, and a few snow flakes for company. An extensive lava field extends down the southern side of the pass but the weather prevented L from getting any photos, she is definitely getting soft and lazy.

We camped one night at the northern end of Lake Van and woke up to find the car covered in white stuff, right, you got it, snow: Needless to say it was pretty chilly outside with a very strong wind blowing. The whole scene did look very pretty wrapped in this white cloak. It wasn’t very heavy in most places but the snow line that had been about 2300m was now down to 1700m the height of the lake.

On the bright side, it was very bright with the sun shining out of an almost clear blue sky and reflecting off the white snow and the lake a bright blue too. Because of the snow though, the dirt road that leads up to the crator on Mt Nemrut above the town of Tatvan, was closed, we had missed out by just one day. This is not the same Mt Nemrut where the stone effigies reside, we will be heading to that place shortly.

On a new road heading for Siirt we passed through a long tunnel and emerged into a snow free valley. We had left the snow behind and warmer weather prevailed. It was a really pretty trip through a series of valleys and over several passes that took us to Sirnik and on to Cizre on the Syrian border. Although the mountains are quite rugged, stark and barren, the valleys are often quite green and fertile. One valley had large cotton and corn fields, both almost ready for harvest. As we came up out of Cizra we could see the border watch towers along the ridge top just a few hundred metres off to our left. This continued towards Mardin as the road parallels the border along a wide flat plain.

Dara is a Roman city that has is still being uncovered by archaeologists. It has mostly been dug out of the rock, there being many man made caves and it also has large underground cisterns for water storage dug out of solid rock.

Mardin is quite an attractive city from the distance where the castle sits on top of the mountains and the honey coloured stone house tumble down the mountain side below the bluff. Up close it is a pleasant enough place to wander around and take in the sites. There is an old caravanserai that now houses the post off among other things. A couple of restored old mansions with tall arched windows and a bustling bazaar. Kept a little separate from this old city is the new one with dozens on new highrise apartment blocks for an exploding population.

Hasankeyf is a small town nestled in the valley of the Tigres River with sheer rock cliffs above that are honeycombed with cave dwellings. The town will be flooded when a very large new dam is complete but you would never know as you drive through. Everyone seems to be going about their daily affairs without interruption. We even parked on a viewing platform above the river that looks very new, yet it will be metres under water when the dam is full. The higher cave dwellings could well be above the new water level but the lower ones, most still occupied, will be suitable only for cave diving. A new town is under construction on the far side of the valley on much higher ground.

Following the Tigris valley upstream we drove towards the largest Kurdish city in Turkey Diyabakir. Don’t know how much of the valley will be flooded but there is certainly some good agricultural land that will go under. Presently there are large cotton fields just about ready for harvest. Seems to us that a great many farmers are going to be displaced:

This new dam will probably upset the Iraqi Kurds too because it will mean substantially less water going down the Tigris that flows on through Syria and Iraq. These two countries are already suffering badly because of several other dams that Turkey has built, especially the one of the Euphrates River. If these two countries weren’t so distracted with their own internal affairs then they would probably be fighting Turkey for their water, both are almost totally reliant on the Tigris and Euphrates.

In Diyarbakir we eventually found our way to the old city. It is mostly enclosed by a high black basalt rock city wall, 6 k’s in length. There are many towers and several gates but the only one we climbed was above the Mardin gate where we got a great view out over the valley of the Tigress and over the old city too. I sat on the parapet while L took a photo, good job there wasn’t any wind, it was a long way down.

The main streets through the old city were bustling with people yet the narrow alleys and lanes were very quiet and nowhere near as dirty as we had expected. What’s more they didn’t smell bad at all. Usually such places even in western cities really stink.

There is currently much restoration work going on and some areas were totally off limits. We did see several mosques, some built is stripes of black and white rock, a lovely restored mansion from the late 1800’s and a caravanserai that is now a flash hotel. In the bazaar we found one area devoted to cheese, sheep and goat cheeses, and olives. You can buy both in seriously large quantities and neither are cheap. It is surprising just how expensive some of these things are here, sultanas, raisins, and dried apricots are more expensive than in Australia.

In all the major towns and cities there are a great many new apartment blocks, many still under construction. Usually the first two floors are for commercial purposes then there is about 7 or 8, up to 10 floors above that are residential. In some areas we have seen up to 30 such blocks. This country must have an exploding population. Also almost all the women wear some sort of headdress and long dress, much more so than when L was here more than 40 years ago, things are definitely going backwards in that respect.

My lot headed towards Mt Menrut. They had been here in early 2011 when the mountain was snow covered and had got stuck in a snow drift and spent a couple of hours digging themselves out. This time there wasn’t any snow around. On the down side, we had to pay any entry fee, but not for me, stuffed toys go free. The drive up the mountain is on a good paved (paying stones) road but still not for the faint hearted as it is very steep. Then we still had a good long uphill walk, up nearly 400 steps to the east terrace of the great statues. There is much work going on here building a viewing platform and goodness knows what else. It’s no longer possible to get a good close look at the statues and you can’t go behind them to see the inscriptions. The heads have all been stood upright but sit below the ‘bodies’ they once topped. Behind them is the great Tumulus made up of small limestone pebbles the size of L’s fist approx. It currently stands at 50m high but was about 75m at the time it was made so D has read somewhere. It dates from the mid 1st cent BC. How the hell did they get all those pebbles up here, This mountain is 2000m high, is very steep, the nearest water is an hours walk or mule ride away. It really doesn’t bear thinking about. The view is stunning over the valley of the Euphrates River and the great Ataturk Dam.

The western terrace has more great statues and some carvings too, along with another great view over the mountains to the west. With almost no other tourists about we all three sat and enjoyed the peace and quiet and took in the view. Later, my lot saw a documentary on this place and the history of it is fascinating, a little kingdom that for a few years prospered having aligned itself with the Roman Empire to the west and the Parthians to the east.

On the western side of the lower slopes of the mountain, just below a little bluff stand a few, much smaller statues and also there are a couple of tunnels dug into the rock. On top of the bluff once stood some large building; Small remnants of the pebble floor remain and there are scattered pieces of walls and columns. This is a little older than the Mt Nemrut terraces having been built by the father of that fellow.

Across on another ridge is yet another castle, much of it remains though most of that is from far more recent times. It was from this fortress that this small kingdom successfully defended itself against the might of Rome and Mark Anthony by firing burning arrows down into the attacking army. L gained that gem of trivia from a documentary she saw.

Only a few K’s away we came to the Roman bridge built by this same attacking army just prior to being defeated. The bridge has been repaired and restored in fairly recent times, however, the original structure is in much better condition after over 2000 years than the repairs are after only 20 years. It is situated just as the river emerges from high gorge walls and just before it broadens into a wide meandering stream. I took another tumble on this bridge but fortunately not into the stream below.

Still in this same area there is another tumulus that enclosed the tomb of two women, possibly the mother and another relative of the fellow who had the Mt Nemrut terraces constructed. This burial site was plundered soon after it was used. This tumulus is made of river pebbles and is about 30m high. Still a hell of a lot of pebbles.

Archaeologists are hopeful that at some point in the future they will be able to find the tomb of the fellow who had the Mt Nemrut terraces built, they are hopeful that it is under that tumulus somewhere and that they can find it without doing too much damage. If and when they do it will be the only Hellenic period tomb to have been found in tact, so the search is on.

We are now taking a round about route to Malatya because Gerti (the sat-nav) can’t read the maps for reasons known only to technology.

© Lynette Regan 7th November 2014