Two Days in the Land Between The Two Rivers

A short trip from Batman and we were at the Tigris River. The next two days would be spent in Turkey’s Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "The land between the two rivers"—the area located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers). The first day we visited Hasankayf, Midyat and Mardin.

Hasankayf overlooks the Tigris River. It was apparently avery ancient city and features cave dwellings. There are Ayubbid buildings including a mosque with a stork's nest on top of the minaret (the El Rizk Mosque). The nest has been there long enough to be mentioned in the travel guide book. There was also a mosque and castle atop the hill overlooking the river. The bridge over the Tigris looks to have been quite impressive but the spans between the pillars have collapsed.

We got off the bus in Midyat and walked straight through the small town to a Syriac or Syrian Orthodox Monestary not far out of town (this was not the famed monestary which would have required a 20 minute bus ride and which we didn't make it to). Then we climbed a few stairs of a building that provided a nice view over the city. From there I took various photos of the characteristic Syrian steeples. There are 9 Syrian Orthodox churches in the town.

Mardin has a castle on top of the hill and features a view over the Turkey Syria border. We visited a few monques and madrasas, mostly from the 14th century, from an Seljuk empire—one of the successors to the main Seljuk empire. I stopped at couple of soap shops and bought a bar each of olive oil, pistacio and almond soap. That’s all they had—it seemed Mediterranean. The trip out of town took us along the Syria border. Tekin pointed out the the two countries were clearing a mine field on the border and would allow some folks to grow an organic garden there.

After dark at the end of the first day between the two rivers, we arrived in Urfa. I could tell from the size of the street that we were in a bigger city than where we had been before. The city name is known in history and until very recently as Urfa. The theme for the tourist in Urfa is Abraham as apparently he spent some time in the city. We first went to the citadel overlooking the city and then went to a monument commemorating Abraham's birth (claiming to be his birthplace) and then place spent the remainder of the day visiting mosques and the Urfa museum.

Belichek is on the Euphrates River. We arrived on a bus and I walked over from the bus stop a few minutes before sunset to take some pictures of the river. I was soon on an overnight bus to Aksaray and then to Ihlara Valley where I spent some time reading a chapter about Turkeys dam building in the region. It gave the impression that Turkeys use of the two rivers water would transform the region with irrigation allowing agriculture in the region to flourish not to mention the hydroelectric power. Turkeys use of the water would also inhibit similar development in Syria and Iraq where agriculture is also needed. My time in Mesopotamia and the benefit of my meager Arabic language skills had come to an end.