Back to Jordan and Onward to India

As I traveled from Damascus to Amman this morning, the landscape didn't change much. The desert from Southern Syria continued into Jordan. The only obvious change was the ubiquitous face of Syria's president al-Assad all over the country being substituted by King Abdullah II. Their pictures are very similar in style. The leaders of these two countries are usually shown wearing a suit, or military clothes in different poses and periods of their long regime. Sometimes their fathers are included in the picture. King Abdullah II's son is already making an appearance with his father, sending a message throughout Jordan that monarchy is well, alive and long lasting.

Abdullah II and al-Assad's power structure appear similar, at least since Syria's 1963 coup. Although the king recently appeased the masses in his country with promised reforms, the dictatorship he runs is similar to al-Assad's. The parliament is controlled by him and the majority of large local businesses are owned by his extended family and close supporters. Although there were elections in Syria, no candidates were on the ballot. The only choice was the Assad family, so it is the same as monarchy, passing the power down from father to son.

In response to the recent protests in Jordan, King Abdullah II blamed the economical situation on the prime minister who was replaced, as well as on his cabinet of ministers, also recently replaced. This is a common practice used by both leaders, to blame the problems of their country on someone els. But unlike al-Assad, King Abdullah II was quick in taking action. His new prime minister, Maarouf Al Bakhit,is a career military man with a reputation for maintaining order and stability. He was asked to lead the reforms, but given his background, it appears that the King is not really interested in real reforms, and is more worried about stability in his country.

People seem either appeased or too afraid to continue demonstrations for the moment, and the main power structure stays the same, although reforms have been promised. Syria's leader al-Assad would be better off if he followed King Abdullah II's example, but he seems unable to take action. Instead, he allows his brother, Maher al-Assad, Chief of the Republican Guard, to crackdown on protesters.

As I end my travels in Jordan, the country where I started eight months ago, I feel I have just finished a masters' degree in Middle East Studies. But at the same time, it feels that I have not even scratched the surface understanding this complex part of the world.

I have learned a lot about hospitality with the Arabs, and as Peter calls, “sliding scale” way of doing business. The prices are always negotiable, and the starting point is where the vendor things the buyer can afford or his assessment on how bad his product is wanted. It is a tricky game that I am starting to master.

I got first hand experience on issues around Palestine and Israel as I stayed in the area for two months, lived with local Palestinians, visited refugee camps, hung out with NGO volunteers, spent a couple of weeks at a permaculture project, and attended weekly seminar/films organized by a local NGO.

Being in Egypt during the revolution was also an experience I will never forget.

The next stop is India. I can't see another pyramid, temple, museum, or anything else for that matter. I am completely full of history, sites and experiences. I am so grateful that I had the chance to meet so many wonderful people which was more important to me than seeing any fantastic pyramid. From strangers on the street that added a little color to my day to people that lit a light on my soul and helped me see things in different ways or laid out mystical explanations in ways I have not been able to do myself.

I am also grateful to two women who shared their daily lives with me and showed me their world : Fayroz in Jordan and Majeda in Palestine. They welcomed me into their homes and introduced me to their friends and family who accepted me as as sister.

Specially in Palestine, we cooked together, ate ice cream, prepared heaps of Arabic coffee and tea, and sat for endless hours at relatives and friends' houses. I was also invited to engagements, weddings, religious parties, lunches and bread making parties. Let me not forget dancing together at the sound of some good Arabic tunes. Girls only of course! They taught me belly dancing and I taught them yoga. I hope Majeda's nieces are carrying on with their practices.

I come to the conclusion that traveling is about the people only. The sites are just wall paper in the background, but the soul is on the human interactions.

In India I will just get a lot of massages, rest and ponder on my latest experiences.

Middle East food is delicious, but my mouth is already watering at the thought of having Indian food.

Damascus Special Report continued - Men in the Middle East

Aside from the protests brewing all over Syria, I got some insight on the personal relationships of a young Damascene while visiting Damascus. I hung out with Mohamad, a man in his 20's, the son of a store owner where I bought some garments. He accompanied me to my hotel where I left my money to pay for my purchase, and for the next couple of days he showed me around mosques, coffee shops and souqs. He was interested in company and in practicing his English and I was interested in hearing about life for a young man like him in Syria.

Raised in a middle class family, his father owns two upscale stores in Damascus, one in Saudi Arabia, and one in Dubai where he usually lives and manages the store. He told me that his family does not support his own choice of future wife. If he wants to get the family approval and support, he needs to accept his mother's choice. She would present him with a few eligible brides to choose from. Therefore, ultimately, it is the matriarch who dictates who marries her son. This young man happens to love someone he knows, but the family does not approve of it on the basis that if the woman met him without first being picked by the mother, she is automatically excluded as a candidate. I am sure relationships and marriage arrangement in Syria may differ from Mohamad's family, but his story gave a little insight on how a conservative middle class family operates.

If he wants to marry the woman of his choice, he has to wait to save enough of his own money. This could take him a minimum of two years as he needs to buy the bride's jewelry, pay for the wedding, secure housing and have means to support her. He seemed to be unhappy and alone with the Syrian ways in this respect, but firm in his decision to go forward with his own choice of future wife. He is not allowed to even hold hands or touch this woman in any manner before marriage because this could put her reputation in jeopardy.

I have a feeling that the youth in Syria is not only unhappy about their lack of choice in the political realm, but also in their personal relationships. This young man looked conflicted about his situation. Matters are even worse for women who usually depend entirely on her family and her husband for any big decision in her life.

For Bedouins, it is a bit different as marriage often happens to be with family members, usually a cousin, sometimes creating different challenges like children being born death, with speech or other health problems from excessive inbreeding. Less affluent families also tend to marry within the family, possibly to keep the family business and wealth from diluting.

The separation of the sexes in most of the Middle East give men in general only one option of socialization with women outside family members – foreigners! This situation make many men almost too naïve, often with the wrong ideas towards foreign women, with the worst pick up line I have ever heard. Many of them see too many porn movies or any foreign movie for that matter, and try to mimic actions and lines from something they have heard but use them out of context. For example, a perfect stranger in Egypt told me “You break my heart” after I asked him for directions to my hotel and a newspaper seller wanted to marry me as he gave me my change. A man in Aleppo came up with: “I cannot resist temptation” after a 20-minute walk around the souq. These are just few of the countless weird, but often innocent exclamations of “love at first sight.”

The only exception to this naivety, is probably the Bedouin guys, suntanned, ebony shiny black hair on pony tail and pearl white teeth on top of a camel or Arabian horse in Petra. These guys are usually very good looking and seemed very seasoned in the art of luring foreign women into their caves in the outskirts of Petra on the excuse of Bedouin hospitality, music, tea, or dinner. Tamara and I were approached by several of them who immediately disappeared when Hunter, Tamara's husband joined us.

In my personal experience as a traveler, although the men in Syria are not as forward as in Egypt or the Bedouin guys in Petra towards foreigners, and most of them genuinely want to help a traveler in any way they can, I had a couple of weird encounters with men who at first said they wanted to help but were obviously after something else. These encounters were very different from other places I have traveled in the Middle East. The first was a young handsome store owner in his 20's who invited me for tea and kept telling me how good he was at doing massage after I inquired about local hammams. He insisted in giving me a sample massage on my back and neck with the store door closed, which got me running out of there very fast after only one sip of tea.

The second weird encounter was on Damascus streets near Souq al-Hamidiyya. A civil servant in his 60's, wearing a suit and probably going home after work (it was around 3pm, and they end the day at 2pm) offered to show me something interesting in the souq. After I told him I was heading to the mobile phone store away from the souq to fix my SIM card that stopped working, he accompanied me on the excuse that he could translate for me. We had a long wait at the store and I told him to go home since I had other places to go afterward. He said “no problem” he would wait. After that he wanted me to go the Souq again and I told him I was heading to the train station and then I was going to visit some mosques on the opposite side. He again took upon himself to follow me. He works for the Agriculture Ministry and on the way I asked him some questions about food production in Syria. He answered, but was obviously not too interested in a lengthy serious discussion about food security or politics.

After visiting the train station, I noticed that he was not going towards the mosque. After I asked him about it, he said he wanted to take me out for a cup of coffee before going to mosque. I thought that was fine until I got to the place he wanted to go. A coffee shop inside closed doors and down a basement that looked very dark to me from the top of the stairs. I told him I was not going there and he seemed upset about that saying that was a good place with lots of young people. After I said no to coffee and if he liked the place so much he could go there alone, we said good bye and went into different directions. I am not sure what would have happened I had gone with him to that basement, but my guess is that it was not going to be a very relaxing, pleasant time.

But in general, everyone seem genuinely interested in helping and are usually very generous. I met people who accompanied me to my destination several times and even paid for a bus fare, coffee and lunch expecting nothing in return.

Damascus seems to have been revitalized within the last ten years, with bustling souqs, boutiques, coffee shops and new hotels being built and others restored. The recent newcomer Four Season is an imposing site in the middle of downtown. Not that the Four Seasons Hotel fits my budget, but thankfully there are plenty of budget choices and house rentals is also a possibility for longer stays. This is good news for me. Although my weirdest encounters with Middle Eastern men happened in Syria, this is a country I would like to visit again.

Damascus Special Report

Damascus

Locals say that Prophet Mohammed looked onto Damascus from the mountain top in a trip from Mecca, but refused to enter the city because he wanted to enter paradise only once – when he dies.

I am not so sure Damascus is paradise, but it looks more modern, clean and beautiful than I expected. The more prosperous neighborhoods are filled with boutiques with western clothes, shoes, make up, creams, sweet stores, banks, travel agencies and coffee shops. There is not much different in the streets from any other large city, except that most women dress conservatively and cover their heads.

But although life in Damascus more prosperous areas appear clear of conflict and the bustle of the souqs conceal any underlying problems the current regime might be having with its citizens, there is a feeling of something brewing underneath. This is obvious from the number of police on the streets, although it pales in comparison to the military presence in most Israeli cities I visited.

There is also a great number of secret service police in plain clothes I was told and most people are reluctant to talk about politics or even mention the name of their president. Others are either in denial, nervous about the lack of tourists, or too afraid to say anything at all on the subject, insisting that there is nothing going on in Syria. This includes one of the hotel clerks where I am staying.

I have noticed tired looks on many faces, as though there is something weighting on them. When traveling by bus, there are several checkpoints on the road, but they are much more relaxed than the ones in Egypt. During my three-hour journey to Palmyra, the bus only had to stop once to have our ID/passport checked on the way there and none on the way back.

I see demonstrations on TV and although I do not understand Arabic and the hotel management always try to play it down, I know there has been problems in many places now. This includes Daraya in the outskirts of Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Lattakya, Baniyas, Jabla, Deir Ezzor and Daara, known as ground zero for Syrian manifestations. People want the end of emergency laws in effect since the 1963 coup, political reform, freedom of press and expression as well as more jobs,and better pay for existing ones.

Although Bashar al-Assad is not as hatred as Mubarak was in Egypt, protests continue to pop up in a different village every Friday after prayers in hopes to see their demands met, but at the same time, the police crackdown continues as strong as ever. The latest small town to start protesting and suffer from police violence is Maaret al-Naaman near Idiib, where military tanks have been deployed to discourage further demonstrations. The Kurdish region of Ain Arab north of Aleppo also recently got into the action shouting “azadi” on the streets which means freedom. The Kurdish towns of Qamishily and Derbasiya seem to be the most active, but so far, demonstrations have been peaceful.

Civil rights groups say the number of deaths in Syria since the beginning of the crisis in March totals 900 including children, and it is growing with each passing Friday. Many people are imprisoned.

I was told by many locals not to go out or travel on Fridays and I have taken this advise seriously. I met two male Syrians in Palmyra who were interrogated for an hour by the police because they were visiting the ruins on Friday. The police wanted to know why they picked that day to visit, what their jobs were, if they believed Syria was a free a country, among other questions.

Last Friday, leading Sunni Muslim cleric Sheik Karim Rajeh, the imam of Damascus's Al-Hassan mosque, said he will no longer lead Friday prayers. He said that security forces have been preventing people from going to the mosque by intimidation and crackdown.

The international press is not allowed in the country and US/Canadian/Iranian journalist Dorothy Parvaz based in Seattle was held for 19 day in a solitary jail in Tehran following her arrival in Damascus. She was deported to Iran on the false pretense that she was traveling with an expired passport but has been recently freed. Her case provides an insight on the cooperation of the secret service and police between Syria and Iran. Dozens of journalists and political dissents are jailed.

Photos of manifestations and public buildings are strictly forbidden and foreigners like me are advised to stay away from conflicts. After I took a picture of the parliament building from across the street, somehow the guards saw and motioned for me to see them. They were very nice explaining that pictures were forbidden, but also made sure I deleted them from my camera before their eyes.

On the other hand, some people seem to feel their president, al-Assad is not that bad, and that the country is on the right track. They like things the way they are and think their president is doing what he can to ensure the population have their “daily bread” peace and independence from the western consuming way of life. From my perspective, there are a lot of things to be proud of in Syria, but I think the country could benefit from reforms. On the positive side, the food is fresh, plentiful and free of pesticide for the most part. There are very few beggars and homeless, tap water is safe to drink, the streets are generally clean, safe and not very polluted. Although Damascus is a city of 7 million, there is a feeling of relaxation here that I haven't felt in many cities of the same size.

I hope the current political upheaval in Syria is resolved giving people more freedom and economic opportunities. Damascus may not be the paradise that Prophet Mohammed saw from Jebel Qassioun, the bare mountain above the city, but it is a place I would like to return in the future for a longer visit.

Palmyra

Palmirya, Syria

My curiosity about Palmyra was peaked months ago when I was in Egypt and heard about Queen Zenobia who replaced her dead husband as ruler in 267 and expanded her area of influence to encompass all of Syria, Palestine and Egypt. She then declared her independence from Rome and even had coins minted in Alexandria bearing her image and that of her son, who assumed the title of Augustus, or emperor.

But such defiance did not fare well with Roman emperor Aurelian who defeated Zenobia in 271 offering her generous surrender terms. Instead, she headed for Persia to request military aid, but was captured by the Romans on the way, at the Euphrates. Claiming to be descendant of Cleopatra, Zenobia is said to be equally beautiful but stronger, more heroic, more chaste and of dark completion.

From the 2nd century BC, Palmyra was an important post for caravans traveling between the Mediterranean, Mesopotamia and Arabia. It was also on the silk route from China and India to Europe.
The city prospered with the taxes imposed to the caravans. In AD 129, Emperor Hadrian visited

Palmyra and declared it a “free city” and in 212 under Emperor Caracalla, it became a Roman colony exempt from paying imperial taxes. This allowed the local wealth to be put into use locally, by building temples, elaborate tombs, public baths, theater and Agora, enlarging its already great colonnaded avenue, and engaging in other public works projects. This is what we see today, the largest roman ruins I have seen in the Middle East, spread over 50 hectares set in a desert oasis.

I was the only traveler in my hotel and the only person walking around the ruins as tourists have stayed clear of visiting Syria during the latest protests and crackdown from the government. It was a bit strange being all alone in this enormous site, cut through by modern asphalted roads. Several locals on motorcycles and cars drove around, sometimes greeting me a “welcome to Syria,” or offering to help me with ”anything I needed.” Other men just circled around in motorcycles making me feel a bit unsafe, but I think I was just a bit paranoid. At least the famous touts in the area appear to be on vacation as there are no tourists. Most of the 50,000 people in the city live off tourism and the the place looks like a ghost town right now.

To end Zenobia's story, at first she was kept imprisoned and paraded in the Roman streets bounded in gold chains as a trophy, but in the end she was freed and married a Roman senator. She lived in Tibur, now Tivoli, close to Rome until her last days. At least this the European ending of the story. For local Arabs, Zenobia never surrendered, instead she ate a deadly herb and died before she was captured.
Whatever, the case, her defeat marked the end of Palmyra's prosperity, eventually falling into oblivion, being visited only by tourists.

Umayyad Mosque, Damascus

Umayyad Mosque

Umayyad is the most impressive mosque I visited in the Middle East. No wonder, its architectural and decorative splendor ranks with Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock. But for me, Umayyad's was even more impressive. Its huge open courtyard with white limestone floor framed by three two-storey arched arcades gave me a feeling of awe and expansion that I did not feel while at the Dome of Rock. Not to mention that my visit here was very relaxed, without loads of tourists, metal detectors and even body search at the entrance. The atmosphere is so tense at the Dome of the Rock that it cuts into the enjoyment of the place. Besides, it is very hard for non-Muslims to go inside the mosque. At Umayyad, I could go into the prayer room, on the fourth side of the facade and all mausoleums. This mosque is second in sanctity only to the mosques of Mecca and Medina and it has a very unique history.

This site has been used for religious purposes since the 9th century BC when Aramaens built a temple to their god Hadad mentioned in the Book of Kings in the Old Testament. During pagan, and through Roman times, it was a temple dedicated to the god Jupiter. After Constantine declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, the former pagan shrine was replaced by a basilica dedicated to John the Baptist, whose head is believed to rest in a casket in the main prayer hall.

In AD 636, with Muslim dominance, the eastern part of the basilica was converted into a mosque and Christians were allowed to worship in the western part. But 70 years later, when Damascus became the capital of the Islamic world, the Roman and Byzantine constructions were destroyed. In its place, the grand mosque was built, taking 10 years, more than 1000 stonemasons and seven years of taxes from the whole of Syria. It was show time. As declared by the caliph of the day, Khaled ibn al-Walid, be was to build “a mosque the equal of which was never designed by anyone before me or anyone after me.”

There were several mausoleums at the site. I saw many black-clad Iranians, Shiite Muslims full of devotion, repeating some kind of “mantra” with watery eyes kissing the shrine of Hussein in the eastern side of the courtyard. Hussein is the son Ali and grandson of the Prophet. He was killed by the Umayyads at Kerbala in Iraq and his body rests here in Damascus at this mosque. The mausoleum of Hussein's daughter is also in the area, where a mosque was build around it, Sayyida Rugayya Mosque. Last but not least, the mausoleum of Salad ad-Din, the fighter of western crusades who died in Damascus in 1193 also rests in peace here after fighting all his life for Islam.

In a mixture of pagan, roman, byzantine and Islamic history, another interesting aspect of this mosque is the Minaret of Jesus, the tallest, in the southeastern corner. According to local tradition, this is where Christ will appear or earth on Judgment Day. I wish to be here when that happens.

Saint Simeon, Aleppo

Saint Simeon, Syria

The story of Saint Simeon inspired me to travel the 25 miles out of Aleppo to visit the site where he lived. A hard core follower of austerity practices, he was asked to leave the monastery where he lived because he refused to eat or drink for several days and was found once bounded by the waist with a girdle made of palm fronds so tight that it took several days of soaking to remove them. After he left the monastery and shut himself for a year in a hut. When he came out of it alive, he was perceived as a saint.

In order to get away from people who sought him for advice and prayers, leaving him little time for his austerities, Saint Simeon perched himself on a four meter high pillar atop a meter long platform. He said that if he was unable to escape the world horizontally, he would do it vertically. From there he gave advice, wrote letters and talked to people in the afternoons. Children in the neighborhood climbed up the pillar to bring him bread and goat milk.

Saint Simeon lived on top of this pillar for 37 years, through harsh summers and winters, and his pillar eventually became as high as 15 meters from the ground.

The ruins I visited is known in Arabic as the Qalaat Semaan, The Fortress of Simeon and it consists of four basilicas built around an octagonal courtyard in the area where Saint Simeon's pillar was located. There was also a baptism building on the site and the views of Syria and Turkey from there were astounding.

Aleppo, Syria

Aleppo, Syria

Although Aleppo is a city of over 4.0 million people, parts of it feels like a small town. People are also sort of mellow, ready to help but only when it is requested. Syrians seem proud and standoffish but don't blink an eye getting out of their ways to help a lost tourist. They are also very generous and welcoming in a non intrusive way.

The mile long souq running from West to East of the Aleppo's Citadel is very impressive with bazaars selling everything from carpets, shawls, olive soap, jewelry, spices and clothing. The quality is overall very good, and the souq is very clean and organized. Parts of the market are very old, dating from the 13th century, but the majority is from the Ottoman era.

The citadel is different from any others I have visited. It has a palace, a mosque, even a Hammam in it. But in the 12th century it was turned in to a fort during the Crusades. A huge man-made earthen mound was built then, leaving a large sunken area around it. The round Citadel is connected to the street by a bridge, very similar to medieval forts in Europe. The views from there gave my a good idea of the size of the sprawling city around it.

The Christian Quarter of Al-Jdeida is the most quaint part of town with lots of fine restaurants and boutique stores selling mostly jewelry. I walked there everyday from my hotel to get the famous local fuul at Haj Abdo al-Fawwal. They prepare the beans there with tahine, and olive oil. Tomatoes, raw onions and bread are served on the side. It is the best fuul I have tasted so far. In fact, the food in Syria is amazingly delicious and fresh. I had lamb kebabs and spike chicken swarmas that were out of this world. And fresh fruit juices are on offer for a dollar for a large glass, freshly squeezed. I don't think there is any pesticide, hormones or anything ungodly in the meat or produce here.

I had to put on a skirt and long head cover provided at the mosque to visit the Great Mosque, but it was a small price to pay to be in the vast courtyard, then sit inside the extensively carpeted mosque and mingle with the local women (there is a separate place for ladies and gentlemen.) The head of Zacharias, father of John the Baptist is house there, behind a railing window. He seems to be very popular with Muslims, as they lined up to view the site and pray.

Aleppo is a sprawling town and many areas are not as nice as the neighborhood I visited North of the University with very modern buildings and high end cafes and boutiques. But one thing is the same all over town. The food is very delicious and fresh everywhere, from the meat to the produce, the vast menu of sweets and hand made pastries filled with meat and cheese.

The train station is very nice and and the trains comfortable. There was no struggle buying my ticket and finding out where I should board the train. It took me four hours to get from Aleppo to Damascus.

Getting a Syrian Visa at the Border

I have been wanting to come to Syria since last fall, but I was worried I would be turned back at the border for not having a visa. And as it turned out, I ended up going to other places in the Middle East before Syria, and only now it made sense for me come here, as I needed to go from Turkey to Jordan.

It is my understanding that visas are granted depending on the nationality of the passport holder. The length of the visa and price also varies by country.

For example, Hunter and Tamara, an American couple I met in Jordan last September, were turned down at the Turkey border. Americans should issue their visas in the US before they arrive in Syria. From what I have heard, other Americans have been denied entry without a visa, so the new policy seems to stand until now. The price for the visa for Americans issued in the United States is US100.

Martin, a Canadian traveler I met in Egypt just crossed the border from Jordan to Syria on his motorcycle, but he was only given a three day visa. He told the authorities he needed to be in Turkey to meet his daughter. I am not sure if there is a policy to issue only a three-day visa to Canadians or not, but that is what he was granted. He paid US50 for his visa.

When I crossed the border from Antakya (Turkey) to Syria, the process could not have been easier. It took about 20 minutes for me to fill out a form, pay US28 (only hard currency is accepted) at the cashier and be on my way. There were no call to Damascus, no wait of up to six hours as some travelers have reported. The officer gave me a 15 days visa although I was told I can stay up to 30 days without having to ask for a visa extension.

So, I left my hotel in Antakya at 8am and by 11:30am I was drinking a Turkish coffee at my hotel in Aleppo. I think it helped to have an experienced taxi driver who collected me in Reyhanli. Turkey, and dropped me off after the Syrian border where I caught a mini bus to the outskirts of Aleppo. From there, I only needed another taxi ride to the city center to start enjoying my visit in Syria.

I understand that several other Turkish borders have been closed recently, but Antakya is the most reliable, supposedly open 24 hours a day, although I have heard that sometimes they close for several hours.

I am not sure about the process for passport holders of the European Union and UK but my guess is that it is somewhere between the three scenarios above.

Of course rules change all the time, specially now that protests and government crack down is on the rise in several cities in Syria. But as far as this week goes, at least Brazilians should not fret getting their Syrian visa at the border.

Cappadocia, Turkey

Cappadocia, Turkey

When I arrived in Cappadocia at 7am on a night bus from Selcuk, I immediately liked the small quaint town. The chimney rocks formed by volcanic tufas and wind over ten thousand years was visible from all over the city. It was a bus trip from hell, with a large woman next to me, taking up half my seat and getting phone calls on her mobile every two hours. So, I needed a shower, breakfast and a bed, to get some rest before I looked for Christine and Sephan. I met them in Egypt and we planned to meet in Goreme.

During the Bronze Age, (3,000-2000 years BC) Cappadocia was populated by Assyrians, then Hittitie, Frig, Pers, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman civilizations. Alexander the Great captured a big part of Cappadocia in 33BC.

In the prehistoric period, the first human settlements constructed underground cities in the volcanic rocks for protections from wild animals. In these cities, they had wine production places, kitchens, churches, abbeys, water wells, toilets, meeting and storage rooms and ventilation chimneys.

Christine and I visited Kaymakli underground city a few kilometers from Cappadocia. The rooms are connected to each other by tunnels accessible to only one person which could be closed with one a big stone when necessary for security. The biggest underground city is Derinkuyu, but I have heard that the area accessible to the public is not as big as Kaymakli, with its six underground levels.

Goreme, one of the bases to explore Cappadocia, which spans over the provinces of Aksaray, Nevsehir, Nigde, Kayseri and Kirsehir, is located in the Central Anatolian region.

Cappadocia was one of the most important places for spreading Christianity in the early days. The first Christians trying to escape persecution from Roman soldiers settled in Cappadocia where it was easy to hide in the thousands of caves and several underground cities. I visited several caves, even stayed in one for a night. Many caves were transformed into churches or monasteries by the early Christians. I visited all of the ones at the Open Museum, including Azizi Barbara Sapeli, Karanlik Kilise with its well preserved frescoes and Rahibeler Monastiri. Tokali Kilise down the road from the Open Museum was also a very well preserved site.

But the best part of Cappodocia was to discover the sites by foot. Christine, Stephan and I went for a few hikes around a maze of tuffs, caves and chimneys. It was like walking around wonderland, a fairy tale site, completely different from anything I have ever seen. It was impossible for us to know which cave to enter to find a church, or monastery completely carved out of rock, if it was not for our guide, Ibrahim, who also happened to be the owner of our hotel. In one of the sites, I could see that the present day cathedrals were inspired by these early churches. All of them had domes and some had columns carved out of the rocks. The frescoes were also similar in some ways to the later ones we see in churches all over the world, depicting scenes from Jesus life. Some paintings of the apostles, Angel Gabriel, the exodus to Egypt and the Virgin Mary were still very visible, the colors still very bright. But other frescoes were very unique and very different, more esoteric, almost like mandalas, with geometric designs similar to some flowers we saw in the area. You can see some of these frescoes in the picture gallery of this post.

Walking around Cappadocia sites during early Spring was also a bonus. The fields are covered with green grass, flowering trees, flowers, birds, animals and insects waking up from the long Winter slumber. The colors were vibrant and the fields energized with new life. We munched on green peaches, walnuts , dandelion and radicchio along the way. One day it rained off and on but we had many caves for protection.
Six days later I got into another night bus to Antakya, the closest city I could get to the Syrian border in one bus ride. But this time I had two seats for myself and could sleep almost the whole seven hours trip. The next place in the itinerary is Aleppo. I hope the recent troubles in Syria will not interfere too much with my travels there.