We are enroute to Gaziantep, the sixth most populous city in Turkey. It is a diverse community populated mostly by ethnic Turks, plus Kurd and Syrian refugees. When we drove through town, we saw substantial damage from the Turkey-Syria 7.8 earthquake, which was followed by a 7.7 after shock, on February 8, 2023. We learned that the safest place to stay during an earthquake is next to a washing machine or refrigerator, rather than under a door way, which might collapse.

The next morning, we stopped to see the beehive domed houses of Harran, a village inhabited since 6,000 BC by the Skellig monks. These homes mimic a beehive architecture, with no windows, and are clustered together like a termite colony. The structure is shaped with a stone cone, to create a roof without timber. I has now become quite commercialized, but you can still the appreciate simple adobe homes. The houses are rectangular on the inside and round on the outside, and carefully built to prevent rain from penetrating the home.

Passing through the city of Gaziantep, we enjoyed seeing traditional musical instrument stores with craftsman who are still making the traditional instruments. One was a kamancheh (center), a bowed instrument like a Persian or iranian violin without a rosette, and played like a violin with 4 strings.

There were many colorful and souvenir shops in the old city of Gaziantep.

We visited an artistic neighborhood of Gaziantep and photographed the narrow streets with the historical houses, lined with metal sculptures.

We then toured Zeugma Mosaic Museum, which houses the biggest mosaic museum in the world. This is considered among the top archaelogical treasures in Turkey.  Stunning ancient greek and roman mosaics are displayed, mostly intact. This was the first museum we saw that had Selfie stations.

The “Gypsy Girl” is displayed in a special place, like the Mona Lisa (center).

We had a chance to photograph the birds Bald Ibis, in the birds sanctuary of Birecik, which is a reproduction center to increase the Bald Ibis population. The little museum was well done.