On the Road

After we returned from Perge we had a farewell dinner for a few people who were leaving the next day (most of us were going on to Cappadocia), combined with a birthday party for one of our group. The party included dinner at a great restaurant, music by a violinist from the local symphony orchestra, and, for the birthday girl, Happy Birthday written in laser beams on the cliffs across the bay.

The trip to Cappadocia was a long one (12+ hours), which gave us plenty of time to enjoy the varied scenery of inland Turkey. We passed a lot of small villages nestled in valleys along the way.		Later the scenery gave way to snow-capped mountains and alpine forests.

Every trip has to have a giraffe for Chuck. I have no idea why this roadside stop had one, but here it is.		In Konya, the old Seljurk Turk capital, we stopped at Mevlana, the main site of the Muslim cult of the Whirling Dervishes. Although the cult no longer exists (legally), the rituals are still performed as a kind of folk show.
		There is also a museum with models of the daily lives of the dervishes and information about their culture. The museum uses the old living quarters (cells) as display rooms so you also get an idea of how they lived.
Photos are not permitted inside the mosque, but this postcard gives an idea of how elaborate the decorations are.

One art form at which they excelled was manuscript illumination, and they have some examples in their display room.

Music was also very important, as the rituals are all conducted to music. Strings, winds, and percussion were all used. They also had a written musical notation.

We also visited a caravanserai. These fortified hotels were spaced about a day's travel apart along the Silk Road to provide shelter and food for travelers and protection from bandits.		The open courtyard of the caravanserai was for wagons and gear. There were small cells shared by many people along the sides and in in bad weather the animals could be stabled in the back. In some cases, sick animals could be exchanged for healthy ones and then exchanged back on the return trip.
		On the road again -- dinner on the way to our table?
The construction techniques used for the massive buildings are a little different from Roman techniques, for example, the use of interlocking arch stones.

Of course, every village or town we passed had at least one mosque. Many were very beautiful and all were well-kept. These shots give you an idea of how much they dominated the rural landscape.