Another Day, Another Cave: St. Pierre's in Antioch

From Gaziantep we headed further west, turning south after Osmaniye, and heading toward Antakya, the ancient Antioch. How Antakya comes to be part of Turkey is interesting. Formerly, until 1939, it was part of Syria, French Syria then. A plebescite took place, and the citizens of Antakya and its province voted to become part of the new Republic of Turkey. (The same thing happened, in the 1860s, with Nice; given a choice between being French or Italians, the Niceans voted overwhelmingly to become French; thus you might say that Antakya is to Turkey as Nice is to France; well, you might...). Antakya retains a bit of its French past; thus St. Pierre's church. We managed to find the church, in the near outskirts, and toured it before driving into ground zero Antakya.

Facade, 19th century, for St. Peter's, Antioch

Just enlarge and read to see this was a pretty important place 
for the earliest Christians; and, as you can see, Vicki and I 
both have plenary indulgences going for us now (whatever 
they are; does this mean we can park anywhere we like? only 
in Christendom? only in the Citta del Vaticano?)

Interior

Remains of mosaic floor

The baptismal font (no full immersion here)

Ex Cathedra

Looking out to Antakya; in ancient times, it was the Empire's 3rd largest city; 
vied with Constantinople; then earthquakes and invasions laid it low; still has 
600,000 residents, however

Gaziantep Museum

But the best reason for visiting Gaziantep is its archaeological museum. When, due to modern dam construction, the waters of the Euphrates began to rise, rescue archaeology financed by the American David Packard focused on the Roman city of Zeugma, and, consequently, some of the best and most intact mosaics ever found were saved. These mosaics now reside in the museum at Gaziantep.

Important PS: also in Gaziantep we found the wonderful Koluman Motorlu Araclar Ticaret ve Sanayi A. S., the local Mercedes Benz dealer, and a manager there who spoke excellent English, and had our engine oil/filters/etc., changed. Total cost was about $300. Compare this with $700 in Lisbon and $800 in Goteborg. So, we have resolved that, next time we need an oil change in Sweden, we will drive straightaway to Turkey.

In the Gaziantep Archaeology Museum; we have seen this 
pose before: Antiochos and Heracles, close personal buds




Closer up of a huge mosaic, the river god Okeanos and his wife Tethys, in a shallow 
pool of a Roman villa at Zeugma, 2nd century



Detail; vibrant colors, not a tile missing

Another room, showing the scale of this stuff

Another; all these were floor mosaics

Central panel of Euphrates River God mosaic, in a large room

Geometrical

Bronze Mars, found in an over-sized

amphora jar in Zeugma

Zeugma as it appeared in the "rescue"



What everyone comes to see is "the Gipsy Girl," a mosaic fragment often 
compared with the Mona Lisa; the signage here tells you she is not in the mosaic 
display area, but rather in the archaeology section (where, presumably, security is

better)

And there she is

Gaziantep

We proceeded on to Gaziantep, another old city with a number of cultural attractions...

Crossing the Euphrates again, for the last time (in this part of the world, it's 
almost always a reservoir)

Spending the night at a rest area under construction, this one with its own 
mosque and ablution kiosk (our theory being if you can't find a monastery 
or jandarma, a mosque will do; many rest stops/service areas have their own

mosques)

Gaziantep's citadel, complete with soldierly statues

Traditional metal-working district around the citadel

Gaziantep's han/caravansery, now in need of repair

Nice archaeological display in centrum

Other than the foregoing, one of the two main reasons for visiting Gaziantep 
is its pistachio baklava, said to be the best in all Turkey; after a lengthy walk, 
and with the help of a nice Bulgarian woman and her husband, I found Gulluoglu, 
a baklava shop that has attained cult status, and which is in fact the oldest still-
in-operation corporation in Turkey

And worth every step; the ksshhh sound it makes when you 
bite into it is extraordinary... ah, and the warm honey dripping 
down your chin...but I digress

Sanliurfa Bazaar

Sanliurfa has a nice, manageable bazaar, much of which was constructed in Suleiman the Great's time. We are looking for a bumper sticker that says, in Turkish, "this vehicle stops at all bazaars."

Sanliurfa Bazaar interior

Pashmina Paradise



Sparklette material store; although you couldn't tell from

this, the favored color, hereabouts, is purple/lavender

Another dress style one sees, rather more in the cities, is the

trench coat look--the trench coat babes--here we are in the

trench coat district

Spice store

Assembly-line bakery



Baggy pants



We ate at a chicken doner kebab place somewhere deep in

the bazaar

Best $1.40 lunch we've had, great sandwich,

all the fixins', yogurt milk to wash it down, and

you get to sit on the tiny chairs and smile at

all the double-taking passers-by

A better view of the Sanliurfa citadel

Sanliurfa: Golbasi

We found the Golbasi sight, at the foot of Sanliurfa's citadel, parked there, and spent a few hours in the environs, the pools from which Abraham was saved from King Nimrod (Nemrut) and the cave of Abraham's birth. All this, needless to say, is holy ground for the Abrahamic religions, although some--Christians--appear to claim that the Ur (SanliURfa) where all this happened was the Sumerian Ur, some hundreds of miles south of here, at the bottom of Iraq. Quite a different story. We are going with the Muslim interpretation, attempting to navigate carefully between the Charybda of religion and the Scylla of tradition. Nevermind history.

Golbasi is a beautiful public park, below the citadel, adjoining the bazaar, and 
containing a variety of holy sites; the pool (um, reconstructed) in which, 
according to tradition, Abraham was saved from the wrath of Nimrod

Clothing is really different in southern Turkey, especially as 
one gets closer to Arab culture; the women all wore these

sparkling sequined dresses--sparklettes, we called them--and 
the men the "baggy" pants

Sparklettes posing in the Rose Garden; the one on the right had just removed her 
head-gear...

At a shop in Golbasi: if your eyes are the only thing that are going to show, 
make the most of it!

Entrance to the Cave of Abraham (where he was born), the Abraham Mosque, 
with the Citadel and its Roman columns in the background

Entrance to the Cave (men's: I had the camera and really wish I could have taken 
a picture of Vicki in the garb she wore to get in the women's side); we felt very 
privileged to be allowed in this place--no one said a word, no one raised an 
eyebrow, despite the fact we plainly are tourists, and most of the others are there 
on pilgrimage; everyone kissed the sign above the door; everyone collected a bit 
of  water from the spring; many prayed; Muslims, at least here in Turkey, are very 
generous with their sites

Abraham's Cave

Holy water

Patience of Job

At length, we figured out that TomTom's spelling of Turkish place-names is not always the same as Turkey's, and, without much further ado, having made the relevant adjustments, we made our way straightforwardly into Sanliurfa, to see the Abrahamic and other sites. First up was the Cave of Job. I'll let the signage do the explaining.

This is the kind of signage we are working with, although,

most times, it gets better; "and in English too"

Staircase down to the Cave of Job

Cave of Job

Kiosk above Cave of Job; note curious

bystander

Promised explanatory signage

There is a mosque by the Cave of Job, and a beautiful

garden

Job's Well signage

The Well

The Mosque

Interior

Glass

Me getting sprinkled by water from the well of the cave of

Job; we would have lingered but were impatient to get on to

the Abrahamic sites