We left our hotel in Aidiyaman by 2:00 AM to climb Mount Nemrut to see the sunrise. Mount Nemrut is 7000 feet high and was designated a World Cultural Heritage site in 1987. The site is covered with statues of the gods, and some consider this site as the 8th Wonder of the World. When the sun rose, the light was breath taking and only lasted for less than an hour.

Crowning one of the highest peaks of the Eastern Taurus mountain range in south-east Turkey, Nemrut Dağ is the Hierotheseion temple-tomb and house of the gods, built by the late Hellenistic King Antiochos I of Commagene (69-34 B.C.). He built this as a monument to himself, placing his statue along with the other gods.

The path up to the top is now paved, with the exception of a very steep part near the top, so we walked up along with hundreds of other tourists. 100,000 people climb Mount Nemrut each year.  SE Turkey is one of the best places to learn the history of human civilization, and Mount Nemrut, built in the 1st Century BC, is considered one of the world’s most important historical and cultural heritage sites. It is still a mystery how the carved stones were carried up to the top. Several members in our photo group are shown above sunrise.

After sunrise, the hundreds of tourists leave, and we can enjoy the giant statues photographing the statues of the temple tomb by ourselves. The statues are part of an open air temple with statues on the East and West Terraces located on either side of a tumulus, supposedly the burial mound for King Antiochus. Mount Nemrut is located on the highest peak of the Mesopotamia and is known to contain the tombs of the King Antiochus I of Commagene.

The pattern of damage done to the heads, notably the noses, suggest the destruction was intentional by iconoclasts. However, these are theories only.

The archaeological and UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site on Mount Nemrut, towering at a height of 2,150 meters (about 7,050 feet), survived the earthquakes undamaged. Footage captured by Anadolu showed the massive heads, each of weighs tons, on the eastern face of the mountain in Adiyaman province.

On the way back to Aidiyaman, the administrative capital of this region, we explored Karakus, a funery monument, (a Royal Mausoleum) which is believed to be a burial mound for Queen Isias and Princess Antiochis and Aka 1 of Commagene, wife and sister of King Antiochus. Karakas means black bird, which is the eagle on the column (right bottom). The tumulus is decorated with pillars with eagles, bulls and hand shake scene representing King Antiouchus, and well as the mother of fertility.

Our next stop was to Gobeklitepe, considered one of the most important archaeological findings of all time, until Karanhantepe was discovered(prior blog). Gobelklitepe is now considered the sister city to the oldest archaeological site in the world, built some 11,000 years ago, both built by the same mysterious civilization. Karanhantepe is older by 1,000 years.

Gobeklitepe has circular temples with T shape pillars decorated with carvings representing foxes, boars, vultures, cranes, snakes, ducks etc build around 10.000 BC. This is the oldest known significant site created by humans. Its purpose is still undetermined, but Stone Age masons created 20 circles of tall rock pillars weighing up to 20 tons.

In Sanliurfa we photographed the biblical Abraham’s Pond and also Abraham’s Cave and Mosque in the afternoon.

We visited Karahantepe, an archaeological site in Sanluirfa, where we saw the oldest structures that have been discovered, and were built some 12,000 years ago. This was the first temple built by a mysterious civilization and considered the cradle of our civilization. Some 250 obelisks with animal carvings have been uncovered on this large site. This is very close to another well known archaeological site Göbekli Tepe, which is just 46 kilometers away, and built by the same mysterious civilization. This site is more than 1000 years older than the pyramids that were discovered in Egypt.

We stopped at Sanliurfa bazaar, which is considered to be one of the most authentic in Turkey (unlike the touristy Istanbul). The bazaar had many twisty alleys with lots of color and even antique guns.

Lots of unique souvenirs… and weapons… for sale in this marketplace. When I took the photo of the guns for sale (top), the vendor came out quickly to tell me “No Photo!” so though they sell these, it is clear they do not really want that fact spread around.

At our Sanliurfa lunch stop in the market, we saw many traditional vendors, including one selling the skin of a large python (center).

Enroute, we stopped to photograph Syrian refugees picking cotton. Turkish cotton is a premium long-fiber cotton grown exclusively in the Aegean Region, and softens over time. There were many fields ready to be picked, yet we saw very few pickers in the field.

Above is the view of the ancient city of Mardin in South Eastern Turkey, from our hotel balcony. The minaret did not light up until well after the blue hour ended, which is why the sky is black. Mardin is a UNESCO protected city and one of the most significant cities located in SE Turkey. It is strategically located on a rocky hill near the Tigris River. Mardin is historically Syriac and Assyrian, though now part of Turkey.

This cemetery has one of the best views of the Old Quarters in Mardin. We were warned not to fly the drone to take photos over the cemetery, since it is 20 miles to the Syrian border. We did get the one image of the neighboring city (center) before being told we had to stop our flight though.

As we were driving between cities, we passed a rather large herd of sheep and goats, which we stopped to photograph (top row, plus middle-left and middle-right). Batman provided a unique lunch stop. We loved the name of the city, and the town street signs were interesting (middle, plus bottom row). It seemed rather surprising that the town has not leveraged their name with the comic and movie hero, but there was no indication of such a tie-in.

We also photographed the Deyrulzaferen Monastery which is an important Syriac Orthodox Monastery built in the 4th Century BC.

We really enjoyed seeing the shadows cast onto the ground around the monastery. The late afternoon light was a photographer’s delight.

We next walked through the bazaar area of Mardin, photographing local craftsmen and spent time taking photos of a man in green shirt reading Koran while on break from his copper making (middle-left). There were lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. It was pretty obvious that there are very few young people left in town. It seems they have largely moved to urban areas to find better paying work.

Some vendors sold prayer beads, which are used to count (middle left). The number of beads on the chain depended on the religion. Throughout the area, people smiled and were willing to be photographed whenever they saw our cameras.

Many vendors were preparing food their customers (middle), while many others were making products (lower-right), or selling from their small stalls.

We have always enjoyed authenticity and this place met the criteria for an interesting and exotic travel experience.

We photographed the ruins of the old Armenian capital of Ani located right on the border between Turkey and Armenia. Ani is an old fort situated at the top of a massive hill, and is currently being restored. We met shepherds with their cattle still working the hills.

There are impressive ruins of Armenian churches and settlements on this large site. We stopped to photograph the 13th century, arched bridge known as “Cobandede Koprusu” with its reflections in the Aras River.

Lots of photos of daily life with its colorful characters. We found that people are quite friendly and enjoyed having their pictures taken.

Enroute, we were capturing images of a vendor selling giant cabbages (upper-right). Cabbage heads at the vendors stalls in town were humungous, and we’re wondering about how to eat the large salads for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

View from our hotel in Kars at the Blue Hour. The Blue Hour is significant for photographers, as it is the hour after sunset when the sky turns the most blue.

We stopped to photograph the Tuzluca Salt Mine in Dogubeyazıt. The Tuzluca Salt Mines are still active and located on the road between Iğdır and Kars and can be seen here on our East Turkey Road.

We have just started the “off the beaten track photo tour of Eastern Turkey” with Mehmet Ozbalci of Turfantastik. This will be our sixth trip with Mehmet since discovering him nearly a decade ago on our first tour of Western Turkey (click here to see the list of 26 blog posts from that trip).

The photo above is a view from our hotel, Arcadia Blue Hotel, in Istanbul. To our surprise, the Blue Mosque is now bathed in warm pink lighting instead of the previous blue after the recent remodel.

We typically arrive a couple days early for these trips. That allows us to acclimate to the timezone change, and allow for any flight problems to be resolved. Well… this time we really needed that buffer. When we arrived in Istanbul, we discovered that our luggage was still in London (our 2nd stop on the 3-hop flight between Honolulu and Istanbul). We have AirTags in all our luggage and could tell both our bags were still in the Turkish Airlines storage area at Heathrow Airport. After 11 calls from me, and several more by Mehmet, our luggage finally arrived 4 days later… in Trabzon, another airport as we had already left Istanbul. We were rather anxious about getting those suitcase, as they had our cold-weather clothes, needed a few days later.

Other than the wasted time on phone calls, and the small amount of money spent on temporary clothing needs, this was just a minor hiccup in a trip that otherwise went smoothly. After having traveled to 98 countries (this is our third time in Turkey), these small bumps in the road are just just something we can shrug off and use to tell stories at parties… ☺

We spent the first couple days in Istanbul just wandering the streets in the Galata Tower area. We lived in Istanbul for 3 months in 2016 on a home-exchange, so we were already familiar with most of the landmarks. We were surprised at the long Disneyland-like lines to get into the Haghia Sofia and the Blue Mosque this time though. We were able to just breeze through in 2016. The tourists are back… (Of course, we do not consider ourselves tourists… We Are Travelers! ☺)

Our tour will explore various UNESCO designated world heritage sites in Eastern Turkey, where our civilization began. One of our first stops was to photograph the 14th century Greek Orthodox monastery of Holy Mary known as Sumela located on the side of a cliff enroute to Uzungöl, a small mountain village in the Caucasus. Our trip takes us across many tea plantations, where we occasionally stopped to watch the lucious tea plateaus.

Reflections from Uzungöl Mosque onto Lake Uzungöl (upper left). We then walked around the village of Karaster, which is a village where the nomadic tribes roam and a second home to some Turkish families. Enroute, we’re enjoying the beautiful fall colors.

We returned to shoot the quaint Uzungöl mosque at the magic blue hour, with its two minarets cast onto the still lake below. Mehmet captures the interior of the mosque (upper-right) as well as more scenes enroute (middle-right).

In Erzurum, we explored many ways to capture the reflection of the Yakutiye Madrasa on the glass tile (lower-right). This was originally a 13th century theological school, and is now a museum. We next photographed the 12th century Ulu Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in Turkey. Regular characters enjoy just sitting in the park to socialize (upper-right).

Before lunch, we shot the “Oltu” bazaar in Erzurum, which is known for its “Oltu” stone, a semi precious stone (fossilized carbon) known as black amber.

On our walk to lunch to taste the best kebabs in Turkey, at a restaurants known as “Cağ Kebab”. we passed by a 3-D mural depicting scenes from World War 1. All but 200 Armenians were executed in WW1.

More scenes from medieval Erzurum, with its rich history. Here’s a link providing more details of the town and history of its people.