Now it's getting a bit too much for me with the old stones. Gerd has found another older temple, so it's good that it's almost on the way. The anticipation of seeing our friends in Batman is growing and we urgently need some rest. Travelling rest, so to speak.
When we arrive at the archaeological site, we are the only visitors. We enter the small office, a young man greets us in English and asks us to take a seat at the small table. It was raining outside anyway, he could make us tea and we could chat to him.
No sooner said than done.
At some point the rain stops, Gerd grabs his camera and boots up the hill. I just stay seated, the warm room and the museum keeper's stories are too cosy.
Some of the sculptures and structures hint at a deep cultural significance, such as a 2.3 metre high anthropomorphic statue, possibly holding a phallus in both hands.
Karahan Tepe could be older than Göbekli Tepe and is considered a possible new "zero point" in world history. Excavations and research at the site are still ongoing and it is thought that it could be far older than 12,000 years.
When Gerd returns to our warm room 15 minutes later, the tea is ready. We feel very welcome and start asking questions. At some point, our museum attendant's English is at an end and our Arabic is non-existent. They speak Arabic here, by the way. So he gives us a hotspot with his mobile phone (we have no network here) and we chat via Google Translate and DeepL.
We learn that Kurds and Turks live very well together here. That the Kurdish problem is more likely something imported from the capital. Well, no different from anywhere else, right? Politics and people are two different things.
We ask him if he knows why there is so much rubbish lying around everywhere. He thinks it has something to do with education. Many people here in the countryside simply don't send their children to school. This is despite the fact that the school system, including the school bus etc., is free in Turkey. If the children don't learn about a "clean waste culture" at home and at school, where are they supposed to learn it? We suspect that it's a bit more complicated than that, because in many other countries that we travel to, school is compulsory and yet there are the same mountains of rubbish.
He asks where we come from, what we do and why we are interested in Turkey. We tell him something about ourselves and that we combine travelling and working. He thinks that's cool. Then he thinks about it and says it's not for him. He thinks country life and living close together with his family is better. He thinks that the Instagram world doesn't really make us happy anyway and asks us if we think we have it better in Switzerland.
Unfortunately, we have to say that while many people in Switzerland would have more financial resources at their disposal, we also know of many people who seek help for their mental health because life is not as rosy as it seems. We agree that there are good and bad sides to everything.
We have forgotten how many glasses of tea we have drunk, some of which have already been drunk. So we bid a heartfelt farewell to this special place and reflect once again on how blessed we are to be able to experience all these encounters.
And: as we continue our journey, we finally learn how to eat properly. The waiter in a roadside restaurant can't stand to see us eating his ingredients with a knife and fork and rolls the food into patties for Gerd without further ado.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karahan_Tepe & https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/karahan-tepe-0014605
Merci for "travelling with us
We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.
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