The bus from Mardin to Sanliurfa with three staff in the front and two resting in the back. It is like a party with them showing each other videos, smoking and endless chatter. We usually book seats 2 and 3 as this gives the best view bombing down the road, 110km per hour. Buses in Turkey always have at least two in front, driver and host. The host pays tolls, directs the bus in tight spots, keeps the driver fed and watered. He may also pass out water to passengers.
There are 1million heavy trucks moving freight in Turkey doing 500k trips per day. Turkey has the biggest truck fleet in Europe. In addition it has 750k large and dolmuse buses. The roads get absolutely hammered so drivers weave across three lanes plus verge as it it the least potholed if required. Rail is barely used, no concerns here about greenhouses etc. Priority is freight and people movement.
Once the intercity bus arrived on the outskirts of Sanliurfa we navigated local bus as close as possible to our accommodation then walked the final 20mins. Hotel down narrow lanes in the old part of the city. Got settled in after sorting out with Google translate as no English spoken. 3pm at this stage so out to the market area to find yet another doner for lunch and then a grocery store for supplies. We like fruit and yoghurt for breakfast whereas a Turkish breakfast is meat, spices, fried peppers etc. We found a bar for dinner which had live music. Cover versions of "Stairway to Heaven" "Hotel California" the Turkish version. Not bad.
The reasons folks go the Sanliurfa is to see the worldest oldest temple, Gobekli Tepe, the Mosaic Museum and Archaeology Museum. We soon worked out that going to the Archaeology Museum, where many of the Gobekli Tepe artefacts are displayed, was the better option compared to the logistics for navigating the 15km out to the site and paying the extortionate entry fee to see, as one of the guests in the hotel said,"see a pile of rocks".
Heaps of interesting artefacts throughout the museum and good descriptions. Before we continued to the Mosaic Museum stopped at the "cafe" ...no americano, no food, only turkish coffee (enamel remover) or heated frozen cheesecake. Ghastly.
This is how the mosaics have been protected. The central mosaic area found on the floors of a Roman villa from 236AD. They were found in 2003 when digging a new sewer line . Worked stopped for ten years while they uncovered the huge area and bought in other mosaics that had been found in the valleys nearby.
Every tiny little piece is no bigger than your nail on your pinky finger.
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This is a copy of one of the room floors they found painted on a wall so you can
appreciate the huge undertaking.
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We thought it was fabulous. Having seen the Piazza Armerina in Sicily, with its 60m hunting scene, the workmanship and detail was on a par with that.
Below is the museum from the outside and the tombs (since emptied opposite).
As we made our way to the museum we poked our nose into a small trade shop as we like to do and watched a chap hand making the plastic beads used in the prayer beads loops that most chaps are constantly turning in their hand. No extraction fans, googles etc. He gave Jeff one ( matches the one we were given in Iran), so we are well protected. When you think they bang this sort of item out in seconds in China compared to the time spent here. Jeff showed him one of the pens he turns on his lathe at home and gave it to him in return. Both appreciating each others craft.
A water seller at the mosque. Calls from the mosque are 4 times a day, part of the rhythm of the day. Some painful wailing from the Iman whereas others not bad.
The alleyways to and from anywhere.
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