Reminiscence from Anatolia- Part Twenty Seven: The Mosaics of Urfa
Over the dinner, Stefan and I had a very wonderful conversation… interjected at times by Aziz…
We were having home cooked meal… the thin Kurdish bread … somewhat like Indian- “Rumali Roti”… lentil soup… pieces of chicken kebabs and fried eggplant… it was delicious. Aziz’s wife was an excellent cook… she reminded me of my grandmother… very pretty and mother-like… she had a lots of tattoo on her face… a reminded of Kurdish tribal culture… Alison told me that Kurds were pagans and Zoroastrian till as late as 18th century… and therefore much of their present customs have pagan roots… tattooing is just one of them.
One of the thematic features of all my Middle Eastern jaunts has been communal eating… people eating together and sometimes from the same plate… initially, they were a bit hard on my Indian sensibilities, which laid huge stress on cleanliness and hygiene… however, with time, I realized that communal eating is not all the unclean and unhygienic… in fact, we in India, often do so many other unclean and unhygienic things that our insistence on separate eating appears to be very eccentric.
Communal eating does some very good things… it makes us talk to each other… the eating sessions thus become very relaxed, stretched out… and refreshing… we talk, we share… communal eating teaches us many things, which were ingrained in the tribal societies… and got lost with civilization and urbanization. It is, in a way, back to the basics phenomena.
Stefan told me a lot of interesting things about Urfa, Harran and finally about Gobekli Teppe… and how it is expanding the frontiers of history.
It is widely believed that human civilization is about 8000 years old… evidences of first human settlements start appearing in Egypt in 6000 BC… or was it believed… however, recently evidences of even older human settlements have been discovered in Western Deserts of Egypt… pushing back frontiers of history by another say 2000 years… but these human settlements have been rather basic. But Gobekli Teppe has changed it all… Gobekli Teppe is believed to be a pagan temple, which dates back to roughly 10000 BC… almost 12000 years old… the temple is so constructed that it must have required more than the primitive civilization to create it. Thus, it is also believed that human settlements must have started at least 2000 years before Gobekli Teppe was created… thus, pushing back dates of human settlements to almost 14000 years ago… a quantum jump of roughly 6000 years!!!
Stefan also told me about a recent discovery in Urfa… of Greco-Roman mosaics… it was just across the main road where Lizbon Guest House was located… no one knew about these mosaics because the excavation was still going on and hasn’t been announced to the world… he showed me its photographs… and they were beautiful… almost as beautiful as the mosaics that I had seen in Madaba, Jordan. I instantly made up my mind to see those mosaics early in the morning, next day.
My next day plan was clear… I had to go to Mardin… see Saffron Monastery and thereafter push to Hassankeyf. Aziz cautioned me that I would be missing quite a few spots in Mardin, whole of Midyat (which has some beautiful functional Syrian churches, and a sizeable Syrian Orthodox population)… and then suggested me to take an early morning bus to Mardin. The first bus, according to him… left at around 6 am and that I should board on it to make to Hassankeyf just in time.
That meant that I should wake up at 5 am or so… see the mosaics, and then get back to Guest House… so that Aziz could drop me to the bus stand in time. I did just that and at 5 am… found myself standing at the gate of excavation point… with nobody but me…
I cried out Marhaba many a times… and at last was rewarded with the sight of half asleep guard… trying to find out as to who is calling for him at these unearthly hours… he came forward and asked me something- probably why I was here and what did I want… in Turkish. I tried explaining him in English and Persian… but he didn’t know either of them… and then I tried the third language that third language… “Ureed en Ushahid hada makaan” (I want to see this place)… he was wide awake hearing me… and asked – “Tahaki Arabi… min aina” (Do you speak Arabic… where are you from)… “Ana min Al-Hind” (I am from India)…
This did the trick… he ushered me in the confines of the place… and then pointed towards the tent which enclosed the excavations… he cautioned that there is no electricity and therefore light and I might have to use torch to see the mosaics…
The tented area was longitudinal… almost 50 meters long… and therefore gave an appearance of a tunnel… I walked almost 10 meters trying to make out mosaics with the help of small torch that I was carrying… but further ahead it became claustrophobic… I was all alone amidst the darkness… and therefore I stepped back.
From what I could see… the mosaics were very colorful and descriptive… the themes were largely animals and birds; with some miniatures here and there… the light was too dim to take photographs… I tried taking a few with slow shutter speed, while steadying the camera with help of my body… but the photos were bad… I felt good and bad… good for have discovering the place… and bad for not being able to see it all and shoot it. It was time to go back…
While I was returning back… a bus screeched near me… it was from Iran… with a bus load of Iranian pilgrims. Yesterday, too, I had seen a number of Iranian pilgrims at the Holy Pond… Aziz told me that Shiite Muslims revere this site much more than Sunnis do… and Urfa is always full of Shiite Pilgrims.
I reached the Bus Stand in nick of time… Aziz dropped me and Stefan, who was going to Gaziantep for some sight-seeing. I hugged Aziz… for all his fiery reputation… Aziz was a gem of human being… he treated me not as a customer but as a family member… and I loved being there with him.
I slept as soon as I boarded the bus… the last few days had been hectic and so the next few days were expected to be…
We were having home cooked meal… the thin Kurdish bread … somewhat like Indian- “Rumali Roti”… lentil soup… pieces of chicken kebabs and fried eggplant… it was delicious. Aziz’s wife was an excellent cook… she reminded me of my grandmother… very pretty and mother-like… she had a lots of tattoo on her face… a reminded of Kurdish tribal culture… Alison told me that Kurds were pagans and Zoroastrian till as late as 18th century… and therefore much of their present customs have pagan roots… tattooing is just one of them.
One of the thematic features of all my Middle Eastern jaunts has been communal eating… people eating together and sometimes from the same plate… initially, they were a bit hard on my Indian sensibilities, which laid huge stress on cleanliness and hygiene… however, with time, I realized that communal eating is not all the unclean and unhygienic… in fact, we in India, often do so many other unclean and unhygienic things that our insistence on separate eating appears to be very eccentric.
Communal eating does some very good things… it makes us talk to each other… the eating sessions thus become very relaxed, stretched out… and refreshing… we talk, we share… communal eating teaches us many things, which were ingrained in the tribal societies… and got lost with civilization and urbanization. It is, in a way, back to the basics phenomena.
Stefan told me a lot of interesting things about Urfa, Harran and finally about Gobekli Teppe… and how it is expanding the frontiers of history.
It is widely believed that human civilization is about 8000 years old… evidences of first human settlements start appearing in Egypt in 6000 BC… or was it believed… however, recently evidences of even older human settlements have been discovered in Western Deserts of Egypt… pushing back frontiers of history by another say 2000 years… but these human settlements have been rather basic. But Gobekli Teppe has changed it all… Gobekli Teppe is believed to be a pagan temple, which dates back to roughly 10000 BC… almost 12000 years old… the temple is so constructed that it must have required more than the primitive civilization to create it. Thus, it is also believed that human settlements must have started at least 2000 years before Gobekli Teppe was created… thus, pushing back dates of human settlements to almost 14000 years ago… a quantum jump of roughly 6000 years!!!
Stefan also told me about a recent discovery in Urfa… of Greco-Roman mosaics… it was just across the main road where Lizbon Guest House was located… no one knew about these mosaics because the excavation was still going on and hasn’t been announced to the world… he showed me its photographs… and they were beautiful… almost as beautiful as the mosaics that I had seen in Madaba, Jordan. I instantly made up my mind to see those mosaics early in the morning, next day.
My next day plan was clear… I had to go to Mardin… see Saffron Monastery and thereafter push to Hassankeyf. Aziz cautioned me that I would be missing quite a few spots in Mardin, whole of Midyat (which has some beautiful functional Syrian churches, and a sizeable Syrian Orthodox population)… and then suggested me to take an early morning bus to Mardin. The first bus, according to him… left at around 6 am and that I should board on it to make to Hassankeyf just in time.
That meant that I should wake up at 5 am or so… see the mosaics, and then get back to Guest House… so that Aziz could drop me to the bus stand in time. I did just that and at 5 am… found myself standing at the gate of excavation point… with nobody but me…
I cried out Marhaba many a times… and at last was rewarded with the sight of half asleep guard… trying to find out as to who is calling for him at these unearthly hours… he came forward and asked me something- probably why I was here and what did I want… in Turkish. I tried explaining him in English and Persian… but he didn’t know either of them… and then I tried the third language that third language… “Ureed en Ushahid hada makaan” (I want to see this place)… he was wide awake hearing me… and asked – “Tahaki Arabi… min aina” (Do you speak Arabic… where are you from)… “Ana min Al-Hind” (I am from India)…
This did the trick… he ushered me in the confines of the place… and then pointed towards the tent which enclosed the excavations… he cautioned that there is no electricity and therefore light and I might have to use torch to see the mosaics…
The tented area was longitudinal… almost 50 meters long… and therefore gave an appearance of a tunnel… I walked almost 10 meters trying to make out mosaics with the help of small torch that I was carrying… but further ahead it became claustrophobic… I was all alone amidst the darkness… and therefore I stepped back.
From what I could see… the mosaics were very colorful and descriptive… the themes were largely animals and birds; with some miniatures here and there… the light was too dim to take photographs… I tried taking a few with slow shutter speed, while steadying the camera with help of my body… but the photos were bad… I felt good and bad… good for have discovering the place… and bad for not being able to see it all and shoot it. It was time to go back…
While I was returning back… a bus screeched near me… it was from Iran… with a bus load of Iranian pilgrims. Yesterday, too, I had seen a number of Iranian pilgrims at the Holy Pond… Aziz told me that Shiite Muslims revere this site much more than Sunnis do… and Urfa is always full of Shiite Pilgrims.
I reached the Bus Stand in nick of time… Aziz dropped me and Stefan, who was going to Gaziantep for some sight-seeing. I hugged Aziz… for all his fiery reputation… Aziz was a gem of human being… he treated me not as a customer but as a family member… and I loved being there with him.
I slept as soon as I boarded the bus… the last few days had been hectic and so the next few days were expected to be…
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