mardin, mesopotamia

last week i spent some time in mardin, a small ancient city (dating back to the 3rd century AD) in the southeastern region of turkey overlooking the plains of northern syria. it is a very different place from ankara. in mardin you hear more arabic on the streets than turkish, and see lots of traditional dress, and the majority of the population of the province is more kurdish than turkish, mixed in with syriac orthodox, arabs and armenians. it was a great opportunity for me to experience eastern turkey, as we were well taken care of by our host university, although it seemed like a safe enough place to me that i'd feel comfortable traveling to as a tourist. people were kind and seemed very used to the presence of tourists on the streets. here are my photos:

the airport- tiny- and notice the 'flight tower' to the left that had steps leading up to it! ben and i laughed when our plane landed, taxied to the end of the runway, and then turned around on a sort of cul-de-sac to taxi back to the airport on the same runway...

view of the city of mardin (on the mountain) from a distance
walking around the village, our bosses saw this shop and decided ben should wear this in our wedding. we're still on the fence...
dramatic landscape
we visited the deyrulzafaran monastery on the first night- which is one of the oldest surviving syriac orthodox monasteries in the world... and still functioning as a temple and school of the syriacs today! we were told the stones on the exterior were rubbed with saffron after construction to help it blend in with the surrounding landscape, hence the name meaning 'saffron monastery.'

when we first arrived at the church, they seated us in the 'greeting room' and brought everyone tea.
inside the worship room

in the courtyard
in the original 'sun worshipping room,' in the basement of the monastery, the stones in this ceiling are suspended entirely by pressure. when the ceiling was built, the room was first flooded with sand and mud, then the stones were laid on top, and the room was emptied out. this room was designed to worship the sun, with windows facing east.
the monastery had incredible views of the plains that were even more magnificent as the sun set




the city of mardin is literally built on the slope of a very steep mountain, so looking out from any point there is a great view over the rooftops into the plains that lead to syria


this is the view looking at our hotel from a courtyard- it was a beautiful old ottoman building that had been restored.
on our last night the hotel had this band playing a lot of arabic music, along with a guy making cig kofte (raw meatballs) that were served with dinner

here are some photos i snapped while walking around the city
donkeys are everywhere in mardin, as they are ideal for carting things up the narrow streets on the steep mountainside that the city is built on. they serve the city's residents as taxis, garbage collectors, porters and water-carriers.


the municipality meat truck was making deliveries- gross!



pomegranate bushes



"utku's house"
a famous mardin restaurant- ben ate, i watched