Hello!
Up this morning about 6:30 to a very cloudy (and still dark!) day, but it is predicted that there will be rain all day – and for once, Weather Channel notwithstanding, it looks like they might be right! Down for an excellent buffet breakfast in the lobby about 7:45 am. Many, many choices, and it is such a quiet and peaceful change from Sanliurfa’s Big Chef! I mean, the food there was great, but this is just much more conducive to eating, if you know what I mean!
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| New museum in old textile factory! Notice how dark... |
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| Paleolithic -- notice all the blades! |
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| Huge obsidian cores from which were all those flakes! |
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| These blades were so small and sharp! |
Left for the museum about 9 am, even though it did open at 8:30 – and glad we didn’t arrive then, as I’m not sure anyone would have been up and about then! As it was, a bit after 9, I think we were definitely the first people there! No worries about tour groups or buses here, that’s for sure!
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| Hittite era pot; love the design! |
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| Hittite Rhytons - for pouring religious fluids |
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| Hittite bronze idols |
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| Me with Hittite lion! |
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| Tarhunta (storm God) on chariot |
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| If you look closely, you can see Phoenician writing! |
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| Bull with chariot |
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| Two small Hittite lions |
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| Hittite God statuette carved out of crystal! |
We took a taksi from the hotel – and yes, the streets are wet, and it is definitely raining outside, but at this point, not too hard. It probably took 8 or 9 minutes to arrive at the new museum – and it is indeed an interesting space! We visited a museum in Rome on our last trip that had been a former power plant, and the statuary and exhibits were installed on and around the still existing equipment; made for an interesting juxtaposition and interesting display spaces.
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| Neo-Hittite statues |
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| I do love Hittite and Neo-Hittite carvings ... |
Here, we were in a converted textile plant that was built in 1906 by Aristidi Simyonoglu and had been the largest manufacturing plant of the region. As I mentioned earlier, the renovation and moving from the old site to the new did manage to take at least 7 or 8 years … but once inside, we could understand why. As Rpointed out to me, all of the brick walls have been reinforced by iron bands, and huge skylights – or rather light wells were installed as well. That was good, because, to be brutally honest, the lighting was awful!
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| Hittite Rhytons |
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| Vessels for which Priests poured sacred oils for the Gods |
I know we were the first folks there for the day, but honestly, we could barely read some of the descriptive panels, there was so little light! Even now, several hours after returning, my eyes are still hurting somewhat from the strain! I have to give them lots of credit for doing so much signage in English – just about everything was bi-lingual, which was incredibly helpful, but one needs to be able to SEE it in order to be able to READ it!
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| Gotta get those Romans in there somewhere! |
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| Phoenician sarcophagus from Sidon |
My smart-alec-y friend Debby inquired of which “lithic” we would be hearing about today, and, as I wasn’t sure, I told her to stay tuned. As it turns out, it is: All of them! This museum covered everything from the Chalcolithic through the Ottoman reign in the Adana area. One area that we were surprised to see so heavily covered was the Roman era – but in thinking about it, I know Hadrian came through this way, as did other Roman emperors, so I guess we shouldn’t be surprised! It’s just a bit of a jolt coming back to the A.D. era from so far back in time … and honestly, we both prefer the Chalcolithic to the Iron ages … but we’re moving West, and we shall see what we shall see!
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| Stunning Greek sculpture |
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| Huge reworked space for the museum! |
The museum started at the beginning – Chalcolithic and moved forward, which is how the photos will be presented. There is a nice section on the Hittites, as this area was well known to them, as well as being a Neo-Hittite stronghold (1180 – 700 B.C.) after the collapse circa 1200 B.C. of the Hittite Empire and the coming of the Sea Peoples. During that time, the area of central Anatolian authority collapsed, and various city-states such as Carchemish and Aslantas were formed, carrying on many of the older Hittite traditions in dress and religion, which are evident in some of their sculpture and pieces.
Additionally, the Museum is a large repository of mosaics from all around the Adana area, and they are presented very, very nicely! (Again, albeit a bit darkly…) As Robert says, though, with the slanted glassed walkways, and the steel railings, it does get a bit disorienting looking through at your feet and seeing the beautiful mosaics underneath.
There is a very interesting mosaic that came from a synagogue nearby from the 3rd or 4th C. A.D. In this particular scene, you can see an “ark” with animals surrounding it, which we both thought was very unusual!
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| The Ark with animals! |
There was also a scene with three levels of animals, some of which we weren’t able to identify – but it looks possibly like a mangy lion, and a rhino, and a tiger as well – see what you think!? At any rate, by this time, it was literally pouring down rain, and we could hear it on the lightwells – and turns out, also see it in a leaking corner! Hope they get that fixed quickly, before it falls on the mosaics below!
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| Very disorienting to walk along a glass sidewalk looking down! |
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| Now I'm with a Roman lion! |
After several hours of wandering, we had reached the end of the exhibits, and decided, all things considered, that our dry and warm hotel sounded definitely like a good idea, especially as the rain is forecast to go all day! So – I was able to Uber-us a cab, which came within 2 minutes, and within another 10 minutes we were back at the hotel!
Enjoying some quiet time now, before we think about drinks and dinner! Tomorrow we are off and down the Mediterranean Coast toward Antalya, with an overnight stop in Anamur. (Decided that the 8 hour + drive to Antalya is too far in one day, and we don’t need to rush, so we’re breaking the trip in Anamur – we’ll see how it goes! No Hilton’s there, for sure!)
So, lots of love, and more later!
m
xxx
Just back from dinner, and the few things that we’d sent to be laundered are safely (and, more importantly, cleanly!) back in our room! We truly had the dining room to ourselves tonight, although it was early – about 5:30 pm when we went down, but still! We had the lovely amuse-bouche again of sun-dried tomatoes mixed with nuts and oil and some sort of interesting bread; excellent! As we figured the portion-sizes are so huge, I ordered their lettuce salad with orange slices, apple slices, toasted chick peas, cheese and an orange vinaigrette and beets, and sure enough, more than enough for two! For mains, R ordered slices of beef which came bedded on yoghurt (which he really doesn’t like!) with crispy potato shards in between, which he does. I ordered their spicy grilled chicken skewer, which came with their tomato and cucumber salad – which R ate in its entirety, along with shredded onions with sumac and spices. The chicken was absolutely wonderful, and just hot off the grill. Then, as a surprise, we were presented with a plate of fresh fruit – two kinds of apples, bananas, oranges and grapes. Wow! Really, WAY too much food to eat, but we did our best!
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| Lovely amuse-bouche! |
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| Our huge salad wit oranges, apples, cheese, et al. |
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| R's sliced beef on yoghurt |
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| My spicy chicken skewer with tomato salad |
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| Fruit plate! |
Back upstairs now, and I will post and we will hit the hay. Hoping for a bit clearer weather tomorrow, but I have to admit that this moisture in the air does do a lot for my sinuses, as it is SO incredibly DRY here! I know we in Tucson say we have a “dry” heat, but honestly? Tucson is nothing like the interior of Turkey for dryness!!
So, until tomorrow!
Much love!
m
xxx
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