A Taste of Mosaics and Baklava
Trip Start
Mar 21, 2005
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284
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Trip End
Ongoing
Gaziantep,
Turkey
Friday, February 29, 2008
The city was the largest and most prosperous in southeastern Turkey. In part this is because of the GAP, the vast Southeastern Agricultural Project that now brings walnuts, pistachios, fruits, cotton, and grains to the city, which serves as a trading town of sorts with cities further to the west.
Mustafa was a good symbol for this prosperity. He had just finished law school and was beginning his practice with his brother. He showed me his law office and took me around the market area, just because "I saw that you were different, not from here, and want to help you." At the same time, as I was giving a coin to an elderly women, surprisingly, he said "don't trust my people!" He saw the many people there that may be potential scams for tourists. "She is lying."
This is the dilemma travelers face every day
Cooking the Wrap
. Aside from curling up in a hotel bed at every stop, a traveler must constantly make eye contact and interact and meet people. Bad eggs are inevitable and can cause trouble. It's all part of the process to give to a beggar who might not need it or get ripped off once in a while. And maybe she did need it--begging is not something people want to do--they have a reason. For me, it's all about engaging, even if it means getting pickpocketed or ripped off once in a while. This takes energy, so it's also about balance and taking the time to reflect and recharge after facing "what's you're name?" Where are you from?" for the 100th time.The GAP, in addition to flooding several villages (mostly Kurdish) caused at least a few problems in the historical department. A Roman site, Zeugma, possessed some excellent mosaics, but would be flooded. So the Turkish government moved the mosaics, some by rolling them extremely carefully and transporting them to the Gaziantep museum. I visited the museum twice, as the mosaics were that inspiring (see photos for a hint).
Perhaps ironically, the flooding waters of the Birecik Dam Reservoir uncovered a previously-buried mosaic--that of Mother Earth, Ge or Gaia. In the mosaic (see photograph), she is surrounded by a wave pattern. This wave pattern, by the way, is not necessarily water; I saw this pattern in Drukpa Tibetan Buddhism flags as well, symbolizing a sort of yin and yang.
Please admire the lobster claws on the head of the sea god Okeanos, the intense, enigmatic gaze of the "gypsy", and just the sheer skill on the part of the artists, putting these floors together with small pieces of colored stone.
Around the town, I sampled the pistachio-nut baklava that's favored here (compared with walnut), other local treats, and chicken kebab wraps for dinner at a local joint.
On one day, I tried to enter Syria, after a long multi-legged journey, but there weren't the right staff there on that day. Earlier, I had also tried to enter via the Harran road, which wasn't possible for US passport holders, though Aziz told me that two Kiwis made it fine. So I would have to wait until Monday to enter Syria; I decided to head west to Antakya, where there was a third port-of-entry to Syria and more history and mosaics in the old town of Antioch.
