Mount Nemrut

Mount Nemrut has been on my Turkey travel wishlist for years now and I finally got to go!

While many people combine Nemrut with a trip to Malatya or even Mardin, we only had a couple days and Turkey is really rather large-so not enough time to drive around and do more. As such we flew into the nearest airport (Adiyman) and rather than figure out ground transportation when we got there I booked an airport transfer with our hotel. I was so glad I did. This place is so remote. So. Very. Remote. We stayed at the Keravansaray (more on the hotel later) hotel just 8 kilometers away from Nemrut National Park...and aside from our hotel and one or two others there just wasn't anything there. To top it all off, apparently summer is low season for tourists here. We thought we'd be battling crowds of people since it's summer but apparently high season at Nemrut is only the months of April and September.

A lion guardian moved to stand by the alter

In order to get to the peak of Mount Nemrut for sunrise we had to get up at 3 AM. That's so painful. However I'm not sure I've ever seen a more beautiful 3 AM. The combination of the hour and lack of civilization meant that the sky was full of stars. I could have stared at them for hours. I don't think even in Michigan have I seen stars like that. 3 AM is also a little chilly. This is June so it wasn't really cold, not even on the peak, but I was glad that I brought a light jacket.

Commagene, Zeus, Apollo

Apollo and Heracles with eagle & lion guardians

Considered one of many 8th wonders of the world...Mount Nemrut is a 1st Century BC burial site created by Antiochos of Commagene (which I cannot help but see and think Native American tribe Comanche). The grave, or tumulus, rests on the mountain at an elevation of a little more than 7,000 feet and was created by piling fist sized rocks (left over from the creation of the statues).

I did a lot of book and online research about getting here and around and you basically have three choices: rent a car and do it yourself, rely on the super limited local public transportation/hitch hiking/book tours through your hotel. While the last option is probably the most expensive, when it's left to me to do all the research and organizing for a trip I'm going to choose what is the easiest in the end. Book hotel tour (after of course bargaining them down a bit), get picked up at 3:30 AM, drive  through the park up the majority of the mountain, and hike the last bit. Obviously the high elevation and thin air were the cause of my slow pace and huffing and puffing and not any utter and complete out of shapeness on my part...

Heracles with eagle & lion guardians

Apollo and Heracles

Commagene

We headed first to the East Terrace where are not only the more impressive statues but where you can watch the sun rise. There's a large, raised platform that seems to have been made as a resting place for people who have managed to get to the summit (imagine doing it without get driven up most of the way!) but was, I think, actually an altar. Behind us are the statues of Antiochos I, Commagene, Zeus (Oromasdes), Apollo (Mithras), and Heracles (Artagnes/Ares) flanked on each side by a lion and an eagle.

Eagle, Antiochos I, Commagene, Zeus, Apollo, Heracles

From the east terrace we circle around to the west terrace of the tumulus where the statues (mirrors of the east side) are in slightly less good condition. Both terraces should also have a series of reliefs marching perpendicularly to the statues. While there are some on the west terrace, several of them (most notably the zodiac lion) seem to be missing. They are not in the Adiyaman museum-we checked.

By the time we made it back to our van it wasn't even 7AM and, at the risk of sounding overly dramatic, I felt like I'd lived a life in those few hours. Well maybe not a life but certainly more than four hours. I've read some reviews of Mount Nemrut in which people have said they felt underwhelmed...how?! Sure the statues aren't in the best condition and some of the magic is disturbed by the chains keeping tourists from crawling all over the statues and the cage enclosing Zeus's head on the east terrace...but you're still standing at the top of a mountain on which, over 2,000 years ago, people quarried rock to create a ceremonial burial ground dedicated to their gods. Without motor vehicles or power tools. How is that in any way underwhelming?

There's still magic here at the top of Mount Nemrut and if someone as cynical and generally jaded as I am can find it then so can you. And if you have one, bring a tripod. I don't have one but it would have been worth lugging it up there for less blurry pictures.

The Land of Pharaohs: Giza Necropolis

Oh hi! Lauren here...so in one of my last posts, I mentioned that I was leaving Iraq, and headed to Egypt. I spent five weeks in Egypt working on studying Arabic, and also seeing some sights. In the first weekend after I arrived, I decided that I needed a break to clear my head of a year in Iraq, and put it all behind me. I ended up at the world-famous Mena House Oberoi hotel, right at the base of the Pyramids with a great deal through booking.com for the weekend. Imagine! Waking up in the morning, and the first thing you see are the Pyramids looming over the hotel grounds while you drink your morning tea! Amazing!

On Friday morning, I met my roommates, just outside the hotel compound, at the entrance to the Necropolis. They'd already negotiated a deal for a carriage ride for about 40 pounds ($6.5 US) for each of us. Not a bad foreigner price, if you ask me, though the horses were not very well cared for, or well-treated as far as I was concerned. But by the looks of what I saw there, none of them were. 

Our Carriage Drivers

While our carriage drivers were friendly, I was frustrated because they were so focused on trying to secure their tip and they kept trying to take my camera to take my picture at various sites. With my brand new Nikon, I was not willing to just hand it over to a stranger for any reason.

This little boy was hawking souvenirs off the back of this donkey. There were really not many tourists, and certainly not the usual Western rubes. The Egyptian tourist economy has been hit really hard since the revolution and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the country. Most of the people that we saw at the Necropolis were other Arab people, or Egyptian school children on a field trip.

The Great Pyramid

As we started wandering around the necropolis grounds, I was imagining how I'd process my photos. I think they're much better in monochrome or sepia toned, giving them a more turn-of-the-century kind of look. And considering I'd been staying at the Mena House, which is famous for having been the site of the famous 1979 Egypt-Israel peace talks. 

The Giza Necropolis sits on the edge of a limestone cliff that overlooks the city of Cairo. Though, the city is rather difficult to see from there now, because of the hazy cloud of pollution constantly hanging over the city, just past the great western cemetery. There are three main pyramids on the grounds, and they are named, Khufu (the Great Pyramid), Khafre, and Menkaure. There are also loads of other tombs of non-royals, as well as the excavation of the workers' village just south of the Sphinx.

The Great Pyramid is one of the most well-known ancient structures in the world, and the pyramids are the only remaining structures of the 7 ancient wonders of the world. My pictures hardly do the size of the stones justice, but each one weighs about two tons. There are over two MILLION of these blocks making up the Great Pyramid of Khufu. It would have been covered with an outer coating of alabaster, and it would have have been smooth, and nearly sparkling in the intense Egyptian sun, and capped with a golden top. That alabaster was stolen over the centuries, and all that remains is just a little bit near the top of the pyramid of Khafre. 

Though I found the pyramids to be a bit underwhelming, this is likely to do with the fact that I live in contemporary society, and have seen buildings (even in Cairo) which are a great deal taller and more imposing. However, the Great Pyramid stood as the tallest man-made structure on earth until the 19th Century (CE). 

Now we move on to the single most iconic symbol of ancient Egypt, and the oldest statue in the world: the mysterious Sphinx (أبو الهول). I say that it's mysterious, not because of the so-called, Riddle of the Sphinx, but because we really do not know much about it. The sculpture is 197 feet long, with the body of a lion, and the head of a man, with the Pharonic Nemes headdress. Some scholars argue that it was built by Khafre, but there really isn't any evidence showing its association with him. I once watched a show on the History Channel that showed that the structure had experienced water damage, and that would date it to prior to the time of Khafre. I honestly don't believe this, and from my obviously scientific eyeball study of the state of the bricks of the structure (many of which have been restored), I saw that the bricks miiiight have shown some water damage, but it seemed like it could also be explained by pollution and atmospheric conditions as easily as water. Here's a better picture of the Sphinx complex. You can probably decide for yourself:

The one question that comes up repeatedly when people start talking about the Sphinx, is always about his nose. What happened to it? Where did it go? Often, you'll hear that Napoleon's soldiers didn't like the "Africanness" of the nose so they blew it off with a canon ball. According to drawings of the sculpture that pre-date this period, the nose was gone LONG before the Napoleonic wars. An alternate story dates back to the 14th century, and was told by a 15th century Arab historian, saying that because the peasants in the river valley of the area would give offerings to the Sphinx, hoping to better control the flood cycle. Outraged by such a blatant display of paganism, the Sufi Sheikh of the area, Muhammad Sa’im al-Dahr, destroyed the nose of the sculpture in 1378. He was later executed for vandalism. No one really knows if any of these stories are true, but I am much more inclined to believe the second story...

As I mentioned before, I decided to process these in monochrome/sepia tones. I think it just lends a more turn of the century look to the photos. I feel like, other than the excavation of various sites, the grounds of the necropolis itself hasn't really changed since then!

You can take either a carriage or a camel. I probably should have opted to ride the camel, but honestly, I really just didn't want to. I was pretty nervous about having it toss me off the front when it stood up! The rickety carriage was enough for me!

So I spent a total of five weeks in Egypt. Most of the time, I was sweating through my Arabic lessons and doing homework. However, I did manage to get out to a few things during the first month, and spent my last week on a tour of Upper Egypt (re: the southern part, or Nubia), and the temples of ancient Egypt there. So here's a rundown of the things that I'm thinking of writing about (below) I'd love to hear if you our handful of readers have any preferences, or questions in advance around which I can center some of these blogs. Requests welcome!!! For more pictures from the Mena House and the Pyramids, be sure to like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ParMieuxAdventures


Here's the list of ideas:

• My neighborhood in and life in Cairo
• Coptic/Islamic Cairo
• September 11th, and the teargas
• Porto Sokhna and the Red Sea
• The Night Train and Luxor
• Luxor and Karnak Temples
• Temple of Hatsheput
• The High Dam/Unifinished Obelisk/Colossi of Memnon
• The Temple of Horus
• The Philae (Isis) Temple
• Abu Simbel

From Behind the T-walls: The Fertile Crescent and the Ishtar Gate

In May, I had the rare opportunity to take a drive down to Babil province to help my team prepare for a conference which we would be hosting in the days following. I spent three days in the provincial capital, Hilla, and though I wasn't allowed out much, I did get to see some things on the ride down, and during my visit to the ruins, and the conference site.

Roadside signs on the road to Al-Hilla

The drive is most definitely done in an armored convoy, and though we left early in the morning, and in the middle of the week, the 62 mile drive still took about two and a half hours. And when wearing body armor (thankfully no helmet!), it's pretty exhausting. There were, however, a few things to look at on the way:

You may recognize the name Mesopotamia, but you might not realize that so much of the earliest, most ancient, and also Biblical peoples came from what is now Iraq. I'm talking about the Babylonians, Sumerians, Akkadians, Arameans, Assyrians, and Chaldeans (just to name a few). (As an aside: Did you know that Abraham (yes, THAT one) was born in Iraq? I hope to someday be able to visit Nassiriyah in Dhi Qar province so that I can see the the city of Ur, where Abraham was saved from Nimrod's fire.)

Mesopotamia means, "the land between the rivers." In this case, we're talking about the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, two of the most iconic rivers in human history and the reason that this area was once known as the Fertile Crescent. These two rivers still flow through Iraq, and provide water for animals and crops, and one of the primary economic drivers in Babil province is agriculture. The majority of residents in the province are engaged in some form of agricultural work. I think that much of the farming is still practiced in the ancient way. I managed to catch an example of some of the produce on the drive. Also note the vast number of palm trees. These trees produce dates, one of the most nutritious foods, and which I find to be incredibly tasty, especially when stuffed with walnuts. I'm so happy that date season is upon us. I can't wait until they're ripened, dried and stuffed!

Men unloading cucumbers for sale. Also shown: Watermelons, and other fruits.

A man walks down the street

The best picture of Hammurabi I was able to get

When we finally arrived in Al-Hillah, I caught a glimpse of where I would be headed -- see that building on the hill in the rear of the photo? That was Saddam's palace, and today, there's a conference center on the grounds surrounding it. And just in the foreground is a statue to Hammurabi, writer of one of the oldest-known written laws, from BCE 1772 -- the Code of Hammurabi. The tablet of these Babylonian laws still exists, and it lives, very well preserved in the Louvre (Paris) today. It represents one of the earliest legal systems to be publicly proclaimed to the people, organized and displayed so that all could read it and know the consequences for their actions.

It's shown backwards here, but the Iraqi flag reads, Allahu Akbar, which means, God is Great in Arabic

Me on the bank of the River at the Conference Site

I was viewing the main dining hall at the site, and it is very ornately carved multi-colored marble. On the ceiling around the chandeliers, Saddam created names for himself, and had them carved into the ceiling.

I had the opportunity to tour the house as well, which was once occupied by the US Army. The walls inside are now covered with graffiti. On the outside, you can see that Saddam left his mark pretty much everywhere. Above and below, you find the slightly stylized Arabic letters, 'sad' and 'hah,' the initials of Saddam Hussein, mixed into the decorative carvings in the walls.

Wondering why this tree has steps and a wall? Supposedly this was Saddam's tree-- the one of thousands which he planted himself.

Saddam also had pictures of himself and reliefs of his so-called greatness carved onto the walls.

Me in Saddam's bedroom.

A Mural of the great buildings and peoples of Iraq, on the palace ceiling.

And now we start our way from the palace, to the site of ancient Babylon, the world's first metropolis. The panorama below was taken from the balcony of the palace.

The layout of ancient Babylon

 

This is the picture you've been waiting for, right?  Me at the gate of the Goddess Ishtar.  The ruins of Ancient Babylon are no longer a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of the damage that Saddam Hussein did to the site during the "restoration" of the ruins. Many of the best pieces of the city are now in the major museums of the world.

Some of the original bricks were inscribed in the name of King Nebuchadnezzar who commissioned the building of the walls, as well as the Hanging Gardens, one of the 7 Ancient Wonders, now lost to history. During the destruction of the ruins by Saddam Hussein, new bricks were added praising him.

These are what the blue brick reliefs look like now, poorly painted copies mimicking the artistry and craftsmanship of the originals.

This is not an original, but more like what they might have looked like -- glazed ceramic in bright blue. And what they looked like when I saw some of the original pieces more lovingly cared for in Istanbul. They were beautiful, right?

I also got a rare treat: a trip inside the Nebuchadnezzar Museum, with a guided tour from the curator, who I am pretty sure didn't think that I was the VIP of the visit, since he only seemed interested in talking to my South African security detail.