Mardin

Our next stop on this journey through eastern Turkey was Mardin.  The town is known for its strategic location on a rocky hill near the Tigris River and for its fascinating architecture: heavily decorated stone buildings cascading down a mountain, overlooking the vast expanse of the Mesopotamian plains below.  We are staying at the Artuklu Kervansarayi Hotel.  It is a large stone complex on the side of the hill and was built originally as a caravansary.  

Mardin lies at the heart of the homeland of the Assyrians (also Syriacs), an ancient people who trace their origin to the Akkadian Empire, established in Mesopotamia around 2200 BC.  Syriac is a Semitic language directly related to the native tongue of Jesus Christ, Aramaic.  Syriac Orthodoxy was established after one of the earliest divisions in Christianity in the 5th century, much earlier than the Great Schism of the 11th century between the churches of Rome and Constantinople. While the Syriac population in Mardin dwindled due to emigration (nowadays Assyrians are more numerous in Sweden than in all of Turkey), they are still very much present in the city, along with more or less all other regional cultures, including Turks, Kurds, and Arabs.  Mardin served as the capital of the Turkic Artuqid dynasty between the 12th and 15th centuries.  Much of the Islamic heritage in the city (madrasahs and mosques) dates back to this time.  It was effectively closed to tourism throughout the 1990s by the on-going conflict between the Turkish government and the Kurdish militia PKK in the surrounding countryside, and was omitted from most guidebooks to the area.  Mardin has started to catch up with tourism but still doesn’t have hordes of package tourists.  It rewards the intrepid traveller who took the effort to go there with a sense of discovery, along with plenty of beautiful architecture and vistas.  The Mor (Saint) Gabriel Monastery (Deyrulumur Monastery) is located 23 kilometers southeast and is one of the famous and great works of the Orthodox Syriac Community.

After we checked into the hotel, we took a taxi back up the hill - it's a .5 km up and on very uneven pavement.  There is a one-way street running through the town so you have to make a big loop to get back around to go up to it.  The old town (upper) is fabulous.  By the time, we went there for dinner, the sun had set but the lights on the buildings made everything look magical.  There are also a lot of shops that looked very interesting.

We had dinner in a restaurant recommended by the hotel but it was a bit of a fiasco.  A bright loud and crowded place with waiters running around slamming plates on various tables.  The screaming children didn't help the atmosphere either nor did the fact that restaurants here don't serve alcohol - although interestingly enough there are lots of liquor and wine stores on the street.  We didn't stay long - I think it was a record for dinner as I doubt we were there for more than an hour.  At least on the walk back down the hill to our hotel we found a cafe with a terrace where we sat and had a pop and some ice cream.  It helped our mood after the dinner.  

The next morning the plan had been to visit the famous monastery here but the desire for a relaxing breakfast and some "retail therapy" won out over culture!  It worked out well as we had a wonderful late breakfast which we lingered over for a hour and a half.  

Then, we spent a few hours wandering in and out of some very interesting shops with Atahan buying a lot more than me.  My only contribution to the Mardin economy was two fridge magnets!  By then, it was time to go back to the hotel for a rest before heading back out for dinner.

We took a taxi back to the town but missed seeing the sun set because the traffic was so slow.  However, we sat on the same restaurant's terrace, enjoyed the view across the Mesopotamian plain and watched the new moon set.  

The major disappointment, however, was the hotel.  It looked great on the website but it lacks a lot of normal amenities - hair dryer, towel bars, and, most importantly, running water in the shower!  We complained but for two straight days when I turn on the faucet in the shower nothing comes out.  That is inexcusable in my opinion so you can imagine how my hotel review is going to sound!  

Tomorrow we move on and the next two days are going to be pretty intensive in terms of seeing important archeological sites.