Sanliurfa, Turkey

We caught a comfortable bus to Sanliurfa in eastern Turkey, a dry rocky area, where many Kurdish people live. We were touted by a young man who took us to his uncle's guesthouse. The uncle, Assiz and his wife Farada, were Kurdish and used to live life as Bedouins between two rivers. They had 14 children, of whom 6 are married, and only the youngest aged 19 is living at home.

It was interesting to hear Assiz talk about his life. He was 18 when he married Farada who was 14 at the time. At a gathering he rode his horse through a group of girls and grabbed Farada. He took her back to his black goat-hair tent and shut her in, so began their life together.

Assiz is the same age as John and Farada the same age as me. She had a tattoo on her forehead of the sun, a symbol of a Bedouin, and a tattoo on her chin of the v-shaped tent peg used to anchor the tents.

We stayed one night with Assiz and Farada but found the house extremely cold and the facilities uncomfortable so we left the next day. Unfortunately we did not get a photo of the couple as they became quite angry when we said we were not staying as long as we had originally intended to. They used to rent a property as a guesthouse and the guests who have signed his visitors book from those days wrote some good reviews but now they have bought the present place and it needs a lot of work to make it more comfortable but they were charging as much as it cost to stay in a 2-star hotel.





We headed off and stayed in a 2-star place in town and enjoyed the delights of cable TV, comfy beds, hot showers and free Wifi.

Sanilurfa is a sacred city as prophet Abraham (Ibrahaim) was born in a cave in the city. There is a well kept public park around the main mosque and cave area where families picnic and feed the sacred but already over-fed fish in the ponds.





Above the city are the remains of the fortress built on the remains of a settlement dating to 9500BC. We were able to look down on the activities in the mosque

where the men formed small groups to pray together and others arrived at the covered bathing area to wash their face,

hands and feet, before finding a place either inside or outside to pray.





Assiz had showed us around the covered bazaar, some of it from Roman times, and we tried to find our way ourselves but after getting lost about 3 times managed to work out where everything was.

We joined the men in an old caravanserai courtyard for a cup of tea. The men were playing cards, backgammon, chatting, playing with their worry beads, and some were even playing rummicub.




In the new city there were rows of jewellers selling gold jewellery. It is used as an investment or dowry for marriage. It is time to vote for a new mayor and the streets were full of photos of the candidates and there was a street march of supporters in their candidate's party colours. Mini vans and buses were decorated with the candidates smiling face and loud speakers bellowed out his promises accompanied by loud wailing music. This din went on late into the night.

Not far from Sanilurfa is a small town called Harran. It is famous for its ancient 'beehive' houses. They are built of mud bricks and then covered with mud and the rooves are mounded up like an old fashioned beehive. Unfortunately they were closed when we arrived and if we paid an English speaking guide about $200US we could have done a tour and they would have opened them for us.
Harran village
There are many young men, including Assiz's son, who have gone to university to study tourism and work at the seaside resorts on the western coast of Turkey. At this time of the year, being low season. they return to their families and make money by being guides.

Overall, we have found the small part of Turkey that we visited this time around, to have very friendly people. We have heard that the more touristy areas are different, but eastern Turkey gets a lot of bad publicity as people think there are Kurds there who will attack them.