Not so amazing city, but amazing dinner
Trip Start
Jul 22, 2010
1
22
28
Trip End
Nov 04, 2010
Mardin, Turkey
Friday, October 8, 2010
All in all our drive took 7 hours to get to Mardin. Once we arrive we went up to the city center to walk around. Old town in Mardin is considered a Unesco world heritage site. So the entire city is under protection. All the guide books claim that Mardin is a wonderful little town and there is tons of character, but no body in our tour was that impressed. It was a beautiful town, but I am not sure how it was any more beautiful than Damascus or Aleppo in Syria, in fact I enjoyed those towns much more than Mardin.
Once we got into town we walked to a Madresesi. These were once theology schools where students were taught about Islam. Unfortunately when Ataturk came to power he made it illegal for any of these theology schools (well essentially any teachings of any kind that wasn't Turkish- so no Arabic). So all the schools closed. Now they are either museums, like the one we visited or have been converted for other uses such as a private high school for girls. The Madresesi is really quite beautiful the architecture and designs are very intricate.
We then visited what is now the Post office, but was once a private mansion for a family in Mardin. After the family left, the government restored it and is now used as a post office and tourism university.
At this point it was pretty late so we left to go for dinner and retire for the night
The next day was an early morning and we went up to the Deyrulzafaran Monastery. This is a Syrian Orthodox monastery located just outside of Mardin. As Mardin is only 30km away from Syria there is a large population of Syrians in Turkey and as such many of these monasteries were built in Turkey to teach. Again, due to Ataturk's rule it is illegal to practice to be a monk and so there is currently only one bishop and one monk living in the monastery. The most interesting aspect to me for the monastery is their tombs. The tombs were built for the bishops and they are buried sitting up in a chair in the tomb. There are 7 sarcophaguses in and 52 men buried in the tombs. When a new bishop dies, the oldest tomb is opened, the previous Bishops bones are moved and the new Bishop is placed in the tomb. And it is still practiced today. A bishop was placed in the tomb as recently as 1969.
After leaving the monastery we went through the markets and went to visit a mosque. It was closed for restoration. So we had the rest of the day to wander around Mardin
That evening we went to have dinner at a locals house. I am always pretty excited to do the dinners because home made food is always the best. And this family didn't disappoint. We were given a very large spread and I was specially made a vegetarian meal as well. It was fantastic.
So now we are driving to our next city, Van. The drive to Van is long, 9 hours. So this morning we stopped at Midyat, a town outside Mardin to view a palace. Another home that was restored by the government. It was very similar to the post office from a few days ago.
That's all for now.
L
