16 July, Şanliurfa
Otel Urhay 75TL (breakfast included)
Harran, south of Şanliurfa, is one of the
oldest continuously-inhabited places on earth, is mentioned in Genesis as the 1900BC
home of Abraham, and is the site of the first Islamic university. But it was to
see the beehive houses we took the local bus this morning. The design of these
homes may date to the third century BC, but the current examples were built
around 200 years ago using bricks from ancient Harran ruins. The village is
poor and dusty, the inhabitants predominantly Arab (as opposed to Turk), the
pace slow. We were particularly taken with the family beds built of metal
around 1.5m above the ground and accessed by a ladder for outdoor summer
sleeping. This evening we visited Göbekli Tepe, a series of concentric stone
circles constructed 12,000 years ago by nomadic hunter-gatherers. Still being
excavated, Göbekli Tepe predates Stonehenge by 6-7000 years and is the oldest man-made place of worship yet discovered. The stones
weigh 10 to 50 tonnes each, vary in height from 3 to 6 metres, are carved with
animal and human images, and stand upright on specially flattened bed-rock. Quite
something to see.
Harran
Harran
Harran
Harran
Harran
Harran - family outdoor bed
Harran
Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe