Home » Turkey » Relgious tones, and sad going homes

Well, after our rest in Goreme, we finally managed to pull ourselves away, and plunge into Turkeys least visited region, South-East Anatolia, aka Kurdestan. The area is overwhelmingly Kurdish, with a couple of noticable Arab pockets, as you'll see. Turkish is spoken rarely here, as with English.
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Relgious tones, and sad going homes

Conor_purcell
2005-11-18 14:00:56

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on the highway. But Urfa's delights are hidden, and are 5-star. The legend goes that King Nimrod had Abraham immolated on a funeral pyre, but God turned the fire to water, and the burning coals to fish. Abraham was then thrown from the castle, but God conveniently had him land in a comfy bed of roses. The Golbasi area of Urfa is a recreation of this story. Two great ponds full of holy carp sit together, with a great Mosque on one side, and the castle on the other. Pilgrims come from all over the Islamic world to feed the fish (the fattest fish I've ever seen). To top it off, there is a huge rose garden adjacent to the ponds, further fuelling the travellers fantasies.

Legend or no legend, walking into Golbasi is like stepping into a Bible story. While the rest of Urfa hustles and bustles, all is at peace by the fish ponds. The bazaar is near by, interesting enough, but for me, standing by Baliki Gol pond at sunset, feeding the fish and listening to the call to prayer ranks amongst my top travel experiences.

Urfa was also the base for our day-trip to Harran, where Abraham apparently lived for 25 years. Today, it's a tiny village with some interesting bee-hive houses (see pictures), but only ruins highlight its former glory - Harran was home to the world's oldest university. This is according to our young guide of 15 years. We hired him at the bus stop for a few quid, mainly to ward of the other children. All over this region, from Kahta to Dogubayazit,
street children make it their purpose to hassle and annoy tourists. It didn't bother me so much - there are many ways to get them off your back. I screamed at them in Irish, ran around them in circles, or the best one - pointing at something over their shoulder, waiting for them to turn, and then taking off. I suppose a good smack across the head would probably stop them from doing it again, but I like to have my fun. No, what bothered me is that their parents have ...