|
meiguoren's photostream |
|
these fish (or their forbears) supposedly saved Abraham's life when he was born, so now everyone in Urfa feeds them and of course no one is allowed to catch them making them some of the fattest carp I've ever seen
Urfa's citadel with the pond of sacred carp in the foreground -- the citadel was first constructed in Hellenistic times, but was made-over by the Seljuks, Byzantines, crusaders, and Ottomans
Ataturk Dam with Euphrates trickling off towards Syria
crossing the Euphrates on the way to Urfa -- look closely and you can see god watching over in the clouds, or is that my reflection...
on the way to Urfa I awoke to the sun rising over the Toros Mountains and it was incredible. I had finally found a part of Turkey that did not look like America
in Ankara I had the loveliest amateur tour guide in all of Asia Minor. here Gizem and I are "touring" a nargileh bar and I'm beating her at backgammon.
at the top of Ankara Castle is a small "traditional Turkish villiage" where these boys ambushed me with snowballs. the one on the left doesn't know about the cease fire and is about to pelt my camera.
the outside of the great Kocatepe Camii -- too big to fit in one shot and complete with shopping mall on the lower level
inside the Kocatepe Camii there is a model of The Mosque of the Prophet, in Medina, which was a gift to Turkey from the Saudi government
this is bananas -- mom, you never saw something you thought was bananas before?
This is view from the inside of the Kocatepe Camii (Turks call mosques "cami" -- pronounced JAW-meh) which is a modern day copy of the Suleymaniye Camii in Istanbul which was designed by Sinan the Great, the greatest Ottoman architecht, in the 1500's.
a view of Ankara from the top of a castle wall. yes I did get up on the wall and yes it was scary
Turkish kids know what walls were made for -- whether they're 11 centuries old or not
