Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Day 10 - Pamukkale, Fusi, Çatalhüyük

Day 10
Wednesday, June 29th
Weather - Mostly cloudy, near 80 degrees
Plans - Pamukkale Natural Springs, Fusi Whirling Dervishes Mosque/Museum, Çatalhüyük Ancient Neolithic Ruins

Early to rise, early to the road, but late to travel home. We left our hotel at 7:00am this morning, and didn't sit down for dinner at our hotel until 8:30pm. It was a long day. However we arrived to a hotel with all the amenities, including gasp - air conditioning and a reliable Internet - so I'm going to try and update past videos from missing previous posts for you to enjoy before I crash.


Pamukkale Natural Springs

In the interior of Turkey is a place that was once called Hieropolis by the Greeks (a resort town of about 3,000 people), but now it's called Pamukkale, which is separated into 2 distinct Turkish words, pamuk - meaning "cotton," and kale - meaning "castle." Why the cotton castle, you ask? Take a gander at this photo! This monolithic mountain of calcium stands out against the green Anatolian mountains and plateaus like a rocky, warm glacier. The Turkish government really reeled in this UNESCO site, which we see one almost daily or 2x daily by now, and claimed it as environmental protection. This is great news because apparently it had become gray because of human pollution. However, we didn't get the chance, since there were lifeguard/security dudes stationed all over, blowing whistles at us for doing things we shouldn't have, and then yelling in Turkish. It was a good laugh, but it didn't stop Mark from doing his burpees - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGOUYdqNeO4


Fusi Whirling Dervishes Museum

This was probably my least favorite stop on the trip. First of all, it took us almost 6 hours to travel from our last stop to Konya, where we're at now. Secondly, we weren't permitted to take many photos.

Before I totally infuse this part with my bias, the Whirling Dervish Order of Islam (dervish, deriving from Persian words der - meaning door and vish - meaning entrance or way), this sect of Islam was cast out by the Saudis and other areas of the Islamic world and they sought refuge in an old Konya 13th century monastery. Here they practiced a life similar to friars of that time, leading a life of sacrifice and poverty for their religion, which was led by Rumi, the supreme Dervish.

However, it was weird we couldn't take photos of recreations of the dervishes, but we were allowed to take them at our next site, so I spent most of the hour here in the flower garden, taking photos of this black & white cat in the colorful bouquets. He always came over to me and wanted to be petted, too.


Çatalhüyük Ancient Neolithic Ruins

It's not too often that you get to venture across 8,800 year old neolithic ruins, nor is it too often our tour guide remains silent and turns over the reins of our tour, but both of these happened simultaneously here in the gypsy land of Çatalhüyük (pronounced Chat-uhl-you-hook), meaning "town on the fork." The head archeologist, a UK scholar at the dig since 1995, was an incredible source of information even when we threw quite difficult questions at her, and was charming, endearing, and funny in doing so.

What to many looks like a sandbox was truly brought to life, and she gave us some appreciation of what life must have been like for the OLDEST known human settlement in the world, a community of approximately 5,000 people which, in that time, was a major place of bustle and business.

What is interesting about these people was that men and women had equal rank in society, maybe even women slightly larger a role. They lived in almost condominium like places, with each house next to one another, and the entryways to the mud-brick cottages were in the roof, not on the walls. Below the homes were kept their dead, buried just slightly below the floor, tied up in a fetal position with jewelry and other sacred things. See video of the "old dig" here, with some of my colleagues waving to the camera - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DaCbBhISz0

Not much other than this is known about the Çatalhüyük people, but it's great to let your imagination roar, especially after the most recent dig in Turkey (featured in National Geographic magazine - http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/gobekli-tepe/mann-text) just a 1,000 km south of this ancient site at Gobleki, and our resident scholar talked about the comparisons to civilization there, even though they had no points of contact, and, also to Native Americans and other places she's been.

I'm no archeology king, but she made us feel like royalty here. I was amazed and full of wonder, all in the same breath, and certainly made the late close to the day all the worthwhile.

However, it's now approaching Midnight here in Konya and I broke off a Skype conversation with my beautiful girlfriend Devin (who I haven't seen on here in days), just so I could finish. And now I am.

Tomorrow we're off to see Cappadochia, another UNESCO world famous ancient wonder, and to see the Whirling Dervishes perform. :)

2 comments:

oma said...

I am finally caught up on your blog and really enjoy it -- love the burpees!!

Jake Miller said...

they are funny!