We are not "tour people," but we had to make an exception for Mt. Nemrut. After Morgan had planned out a list of places in Southeastern Turkey to visit, which would have taken at least a week, with lots of buses and taxis, we discovered there was a whirlwind tour from Goreme that took us to most of those places. We signed up.
We hopped into our tour van, a 15 seat VW, though only 5 tourists were on the trip. This proved to be nice, because we could spread out all over the van and be comfortable. An hour in wqe stopped at a... shoot, I can't rember the word. Anyway, it was a caravan fortress of sorts. Along the silk road, these walled hotels provided shelter every 40km for caravans. It was really cool inside, and something I'd never really thought much about.
10 hours of driving across the Taurus Mountains got us up to Mt. Nemrut just in time for dinner. In the morning the fun would begin...
Mt. Nemrut is on the tip of the Taurus range, and as such has a beautiful view of the Euphrates, as well as clear views to the east and the west. The Assyrians built altars facing both directions, so that they could make sacrifices at sunrise and sunset. Our tour was designed so that we could wake up early, drive to the summit for the sunrise, and enjoy the view. Unfortunately for us, it was pouring rain (how many mountaintop rainstorms do we have to endure?), and we were essentially inside a cloud. This diminished the experience somewhat. "Look at the bright side," I said, "at least we will have unique photographs!"
The headless statues were pretty cool. Apparantly the Romans decided to lop off all the heads to show the Asyrians who was in charge now. Nevermind that the Assyrians had been gone for centuries... Anyway, we headed on towards Urfa, while our wet layers hung about the van in a vain attempt to dry. We stopped at an awesome Roman bridge that spanned the mouth of a gorge, and some pillar that was of importance for some reason or other. Obviously not that much importance, or I would remember.
Urfa, the birthplace of Abraham, excellent. There was a huge park that contained a lot of beautiful and historic sights, as well as just being a really nice park. It was raining still, putting a damper on things. "Look at the bright side," I said, "there will be less tourists."
The first thing we checked out was Abraham's Cave. I didn't even know what it was as we went in, I must have been picking my nose when the tour guide explained it. It was absically an ordinary mosque, witha a glass viewing box that peeked into a cave. Big whoop. Then there was an old Muslim guy who got mad at me for some reason, even though I had remembered to take my shoes off. The guide then got in an argument with him, and kept telling me to go in. So I did. My first time in a mosque, and I get yelled at. Not exactly a good start.
Anyway, the best was yet to come. I always figured that Jews, Christians, and Muslims shared the same stories about Abraham, because we all share him as a forefather of the respective relhions. Wrong. Islam has an awesome Abraham story. Apparantly there was a prophecy that Kinf Nemrut of the Assyrians would be usurped by a baby or something, so he decided to kill all the newborns in the vacinity (one of those kings). Abraham's mother hid him in the cave from the last paragraph, but eventually, when he was the last kiddo left, he was found out. The Assyrians took him to the hilltop fortress overlooking Urfa, built a giant bonfire down in the city below, and catapulted him into it. I love this. They could've catapulted the baby, or barbeque the baby, but instead they had to go for the catapult-barbeque combo kill. FINISH HIM!
Of course we know that Abraham doesn't die, and indeed God saves him... by turning the fire into water and the sticks into fish! Take that Nemrut! To this day there is a giant pool of carp in the city park, supposedly the ancestors of Abraham's fish.
Sidenote: At first I missed the part abou this happening when Abraham was a baby, and I was picturing a long-bearded-old-man-Abraham character being catapulted across town. Even more amusing, in my opinion.
That evening we drove to Harran, which is supposedly one of the oldest continually inhabited places on earth. They are famous for several ancient sites, including an Assyrian Observatory, but it was dark when we got there. We could just barely make out its outline as we tried not to step in cow poo. "Look at the bright side..."
We checked out some reconstructed houses that Harran is famous for, and joked around with the brothers who ran the place. One insisted that if I could not produce 100 camels to Morgan's father, than she had to stay in Harran with him. We agreed that I would get the camals when we wnt home, and if not, Morgan always has the option of coming back to Harran. We got all dressed up in traditional clothes (don't ask me why), and another brother said I looked like Yasser Arafat. He called me Yasser the rest of the evening.
The rest of ourtrip was rather uneventful. It mostly involves us driving for hours on end, and when we got back to Goreme we were exhausted. Too exhausted to share about our tour for at least a couple weeks.
Where are we now? Madaba, Jordan. We are heading to Petra tomorrow. Also, we just bought 3 falafel sandwiches for 1$. Booyah.
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