Ankara, Turkey July 15, 2023 A passing conversation at the front desk of the hotel in Mosul, Iraq was how I met Mustafa. A couple of days later I met his colleague and friend Selim when we sat and chatted over tea and coffee. Our conversation meandered over myriad subjects and topics in the way … More Welcome to Ankara
Bogazkale, Turkey July 13, 2023 Nobody seems to agree on the origins of the Hittites, nor how they came to this area of central Anatolia. They apparently settled here around the 2nd millennium BCE, assimilated into the indigenous population of the Hatti and took on the name of Hittite. The Museum of Anatolian Civilization in … More Hot on the Trail of the Hittites
Ankara, Turkey July 8, 2023 My disappointment in not being able to see Catalhoyuk vanished in a heartbeat as soon as I stepped into this section of the Museum of Anatolian Civilization in Ankara. There it is! The model of one of the rooms – I had only seen the drawing in the museum in … More Life in Catalhoyuk
Konya, Turkey July 5, 2023 It seems like the city of a thousand mosques, so many are they, around every corner, of all ages. Known to the Greeks as Iconium, most know Konya as the home of the poet Rumi. His final resting place is the mausoleum and it is this turquoise tomb that many … More In the City of Dervishes
Gaziantep, Turkey July 2, 2023 Â We were seated next to each other on the bus and talked non-stop the entire time. Mirsen is a teacher in a school in Sirnak and is on her way home to Gaziantep for the summer holidays. I was stopping in Sanliurfa but she extracted a promise from me … More Through Their Eyes
Sanliurfa, Turkey June 30, 2023 A few miles from Sanliurfa, among the intensively cultivated farmlands is a hill called Gobekli Tepe in local parlance which translates to bellied hill. It is here that an astonishing discovery was made almost sixty years ago, upended the then-held views on ancient megalithic structures. Excavations that followed unveiled a … More Mysterious Gobekli Tepe
Mardin, Turkey June 28, 2023 Perched on a hillock close to the border of Iraq is the town of Mardin. With craggy hilltops, one of them crowned with the old castle, it is picturesque. The old town was once completely made of honey-colored sandstone with all buildings staggering up and down the hill. The ten … More Perched Atop a Hill
Dogubayazit, Turkey Aug 17, 2018 Five years ago, when I was traveling through south-eastern Anatolia, I had stopped in Dogubayazit, the last town in eastern Turkey. In the few days spent there, I had stayed in a hostel called Otel Tahran. It was owned by Bilal and it was his friend Mustafa, who had shown … More Auld Lang Syne
Kars, Turkey Aug 15, 2018 On a wind-swept plateau bounded by the deep gorge of the Akhurian river on one side, is the site of Ani. Begun in 961 AD, it flourished between the 10th and 11th century as the capital of the Bagratid kingdom of Armenia. Its position on lucrative trade routes ensured that … More The Ghost of Ani
Kars, Turkey Aug 13, 2018 Traveling through Armenia, I’d been hearing stories of Ani, the fabled capital of the Bagratid kingdom of Armenia dating back to the middle ages. There are rumors of a place near Gyumri from where one gets a view of Ani. But nobody I met had actually been there, nor could … More To Turkey on a Whim
ITCHY FEET TRAVELS 