Happy New 2007!

And Id Mubarak / Iyi bayramlar - for those of you who celebrate the feast starting today!

The supreme joys of Antep

Baklava! Antep has reportedly the best in Turkey and in the older parts of the town almost every third shop is a baklava-shop! We tried some and it was delicious!

Antep kale

After the previous tit-bits (and a computer change with has kept me from blogging for a few days) I can now start to show our recent trip more chronologically. This is the fortress of Gaziantep, probably used for the last time during the independence fighting against the French around 1920, giving the city the honorific "gazi" after being plain Antep (Ottoman Aintab). The fortress was closed but looked a lot like the Aleppo one from the outside, if somewhat smaller. The similarity to Aleppo is probably no coincidence, as the city belonged to the Aleppo province before a Turkish-Syrian border was drawn between the two.

Rumkale

This is Rumkale, a medieval fortress used for centuries to guarantee security on the Euphrates. The first mention of the site was Hittite and it existed under the Romans also. The current remains are medieval, it belonged to the Crusader principality of Edessa (Urfa) and was sold to the Syriac church, who kept it as a bishops-seat for a time.

The setting, high above the river (now the dam, which has not touched the fortress) is magnificent! It is only possible to reach by boat, though.

Father Firat!

Euphrates! Here shown first as the Roman god of the River, as depicted in the Zeugma mosaics in the Gaziantep museum and then below, the river itself, taken from high up on the gorge, at Rumkale on the dam. Roman rule and influence stretched firmly as far as the river in Antiquity and the thought of a special river god shows how firmly rooted in Roman culture Anatolia was. See hos the river flows from his waterpot. The river Euphrates was at the time in a sense the divider between East and West, Roman and Persian.

Time for reading?

For those of you who may have some extra time over the holidays and who still haven't read it, I will here provide you with links to this months talkie - the Baker-Hamilton/Iraq Study Group Report on Iraq. And here to ICG:s subsequent report on "what to do now". And some media commentary in Swedish.

I hope that the holiday spirit includes some willingness to take action for making the world a safer place for all its citizens in 2007.

Excavation signature

We have seen the Roman mosaics in the Gaziantep museum, rescued in excavations from Zeugma on the Euphrates, before the building of the latest dam. This lady has become the symbol of the collection, which is beautifully displayed - the exhibition producer is excellent! Look at her eyes and marvel!

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas to all those of you who do celebrate - and may the wishes for a peaceful holiday extend also to all others. This is our temporary companion for the holiday period, resting - we are hoping he finds our company as congenial as we find his!

Arab Human Development Report 2005

In addition to the global Human Development Report which I previously wrote a posting about, an Arab Human Development Report (data covering 2005 - executive summary here & release material in Swedish here) has been recently launched, for the 4th time. As usual the report is authored by Arab researchers and adresses development challenges specific to the region. This year's edition focuses on the situation of women in the Arab world, which is still highly unequal. Thus countries fail to fully utilize the potential of half of the society in a way as to forward the needs of society as a whole and break with poverty, segregation and lack of rights and access to even basic services for it's citizens. Some progress may be noted however, also - credit should be given when due!, even if some changes are still in the cosmetic range of i e political participation.

Another interesting feature of this year's edition is the update on the impact of the previous reports, covering issues such as knowledge and governance - which have been given large attention and seen as partly very controversial.

Human Rights Day

I realize yesterday held another important event, apart from the Nobel celebrations. It was also International Human Rights Day, which of course deserves attention.

In this context, the recent prizes posthumously awarded to Martin Adler and Anna Politkovskaja by the Swedish section of Reporters without Borders also warrants a mention. The motivation for the shared prize between the two deceased journalists, who also happened to have been born the same year, is how they "with curiosity, tenacity and courage reported from places where freedom of expression is at its most threatened, and paid for this with their lives".

Award ceremony

Today, December 10th, the Nobel prizes have been awarded and the lavish celebratory banquet is taking place tonight at the Stockholm City Hall. I would again like to draw your attention to the Literature laureate, the Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, and give my congratulations - for a magnificent authorship that I hope will last for many years to come.

Ihlara landscape views

Cave city

These are one of Kapadokya's underground cities, whose earliest history reportedly dates to the Hittites. In later ages they are supposed to have been used by local Christian communities in times of war and need. These may have taken place both during Roman persecution during the early Empire and later due to Muslim raiders to Anatolia. Whether they have been continuously known and used is obscure to me, though. They are dug out in porous stone and could be easily expanded - this one was 7-8 floors deep. I couldn't take a picture up the airshaft, unfortunately - the dark and the angle made it too great a challenge, but craning your head into it and looking up from the lowest level was breathtaking! I am slightly claustrophobic though and think one visit down is quite enough for me, but it was a real experience!

Highlights!

There are soooo many things from the past year that I would like to recapitulate - so many places and moments to return to. Unfortunately, I cannot show them all... so I stick to these, from a glorious (but hot and humid!) summer day spent in Istanbul with my husband and a close friend. And be sure that there is more to come - if you keep coming back to see me here.

Landscape

Another view over the amazing surroundings in this extraordinary landscape...

You really can't tell...

... but a significant change for the anniversary has taken place, an upgrade of the template format. ;-)

Buy an emission right!

Do our climate a favour and buy an emission right for one ton of carbondioxide!

Every emission right bought diminishes the number of rights available to emit on (the link above helps you buy emissions rights allocated to Sweden but maybe there is a possibility in your country also).

Especially now, approaching holiday times, this can be the perfect gift for someone who already has it all.

More cave frescoes

This cave church was in the Ihlara valley. Our guide claimed that at least some of the damage to the frescoes, especially their faces, was due to the practice of setting semi-precious stones as eyes - which later were picked off and sold.

Many of the frescoes depict biblical and saintly scenes. St George is a common motif, and I think he was one of the originally Cappadocian saints actually. Very many of the early church saints were Anatolian (as much of early church history was) and the Roman persecutions of Christians, i e under Domitian in the 3rd century, hit very hard in this area.

Cave frescoes

Again, I've probably shown pictures from the site before. But it is worth it. The Göreme Outdoor museum with mainly churches and monastery service functions (you can see a toilet below) built into caves really illustrates the long interplay between nature and man. And highlights developments in medieval Christian art in Anatolia - I will get to some later artwork in a subsequent posting.

Ihlara valley

Also in Kapadokya, we spent an hour or so hiking through this gorge. Note the contrast between the surrounding stony escarpments and the lush greenery along the stream at the bottom.

Kapadokya cliffs

Weeks ago by now, we spent a weekend in the dramatic landscapes of Kapadokya. Rarely, if anywhere, have I experienced this particular brand of alluring meeting between nature and culture. I believe have I told you this before, but the impression is so striking, that I really don't mind repeating myself on this point.

Contrasts

Well, this was 3 weeks ago, in Kemer. Dramatic scenes where the mountains inland caught the sea humidity, turning it into clouds. But the weather was great and allowed bikinis and sea-bathing for 4 days! And last week we had snow in Ankara, as you've seen. Very odd feeling, I must say!

Global water

I just want to direct your attention to today's launch of this year's UNDP Human Development Report Beyond Scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis.

One figure highlighted is that the cost for reaching the millenium goal on water is half of what people in rich countries spend on bottled mineral water. I would happily support an initiative giving contributions to water development projects raised by a 0,1 €/litre raise in the cost of bottled water, if there was one!

Snoooooow????

It's not 2 weeks since I sunbathed on the coast and today we have a completely white Ankara!!!!

Approaching an anniversary

It is too early to celebrate as yet, but on November 29 this weblog has been up for a whole year!

Grave secrets?

On the corner of Divanyolu and Bab-i-ali - in the centre of Istanbuls old city - there is a graveyard. Well, actually, now it's a tea garden. Who the people buried here are I don't know - but we paid them a visit on an August morning.

Topkapi tiling

Iznik tiling has been famous for centuries, and supposedly, the Topkapi palace has some prime historic examples of it.

Palace floors

Seeing Istanbul, dominated by centuries of Ottoman remains, I am sometimes confused as to how the city's Byzantine time may have looked. It is much more difficult to find and discern those traces, even if the Hagia Sofia and the Hippodrome dominate the central parts of old Istanbul. I have seen a Byzantine palace and some old churches also, in what was then the outskirts of the city. However, finding the museum showing remains of the mosaic floors of the Great Palace of Byzantine Konstantinople helped me lot in shedding more light on this portion of history.

Turning a corner

Everywhere you turn in the old quarters of Istanbul, there are remains of history to meet you. Fountains, inscriptions, ruins, buildings, you name it! I always wonder what their accessibility does to people's sense of history, culture and belonging - but I am afraid you grow used to them and don't see them at all - all too soon.

Hagia Sofia

Unfortunately the size and darkness inside the Hagia Sofia makes photos difficult. But one of the magnificent mosaics I can show you here.

Classic ports of the Orient

Speaking of travelling (at least a continuous underlying theme here) I MUST show you the train stations of Istanbul!

First is the inside of Sirkeci, by the Golden Horn on the European shore. I still haven't figured out if this was actually where the Orient Express from Paris came in, because it's location does not make sense to me with the supposed carrying of passengers in litters to Pera Palas.



And this is Haydarpasha on the Anatolian side of the Bosphorus. I frequently from a distance confuse the barracks and military hospital of the same name with the station, though. Close up there is no question.

Book recommendations

You may have seen that I have added book recommendation links from Amazon in the lower righthand margin.

I can assure you that I will only recommend books that I have personally read and truly enjoyed. In fact, I intend to give recommendations to books that have really been an experience to read and enhanced my knowledge and understanding - often reflecting countries and areas where I travel and show photos from.

This does not mean that I will avoid fiction, though, quite the contrary - few things are as developing as gaining insights into societies through the lives and thoughts fictional characters.

Congratulations to Orhan Pamuk!

Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk ( in English) was today awarded the Nobel prize in literature by the Swedish Academy of literature. Pamuk is the first Turkish Nobel laureate in literature and will receive his prize in Stockholm on December 10.

His latest novel (if not his latest book) Snow takes place in Kars, from where you could earlier see pictures here on my blog! (see september archives)

Churches again

The churches and monuments of Ani were endless - here are some details of the less preserved smaller ones - first St Gregory.





And as usual - some interior details: