{"id":10135,"date":"2022-02-10T14:32:13","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T21:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/?p=10135"},"modified":"2022-02-17T11:40:52","modified_gmt":"2022-02-17T18:40:52","slug":"sanliurfa-monoliths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/index.php\/2022\/02\/10\/sanliurfa-monoliths\/","title":{"rendered":"\u015eanl\u0131urfa and Monoliths"},"content":{"rendered":"
Position: 37\u00b008’57″N 38\u00b047’22″E<\/a><\/h6>\n

Fans of 1960s epic films are familiar with two of the greatest cuts in cinema history. I\u2019ll give you a second to consider which ones you think I\u2019m referring to. […..] If you said the moment early in Lawrence of Arabia<\/a><\/u> when Peter O\u2019Toole blows out a match and the scene cuts to sunrise in the desert, supported with rousing music by Maurice Jarre, then you\u2019re halfway there.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For my second candidate I\u2019ll give you a clue, Stanley Kubrick. There is no doubt that Kubrick was both influenced by and competing with David Lean. The question on his mind during the production of 2001: A Space Odyssey<\/a><\/span> must have been, how do I out-Lean Lean? Not only in sweep and grandeur, but in the finer details? How do I top Lawrence blowing out that damn match? The answer was, of course, a monkey, a monolith, a bone, and an orbital nuclear bomb – all underscored by Richard Strauss’s jaunty Blue Danube Waltz. Start at the dawn of weapons and cut to their ultimate incarnation. Nice work, Stanley (and Arthur).<\/p>\n

I bring this up because inside of three days we walked around the world\u2019s oldest monoliths and came close to understanding how the Ottoman Empire fell apart in the 1920s. In this post I\u2019ll address the monoliths, then tackle the Ottomans in the next (but one).<\/p>\n

\u015eanl\u0131urfa<\/h6>\n

Fortified by internet research in support of our newly found passion for pigeons<\/a>, we discovered the centre of Turkish pigeon keeping is \u015eanliurfa [1]<\/a>. There, the Grand Mosque watches over the central park, a stone\u2019s throw from old town. Pigeons cluster in the courtyard, fat and happy with the attention plenty of food brings.<\/p>\n

\"Sanliurfa-pigeons\"<\/a><\/p>\n

POND<\/strong><\/p>\n

We learned the Prophet Abraham<\/a> (Ibrahim<\/a> in Islam), one of several characters who transcend Judeo-Christian-Islamic teachings, hailed from Urfa. And, depending on your religion, he is also buried there in a cave beneath the mosque. Nearby, on the northwest side of the park, is Balikli G\u00f6l<\/a>, the sacred pool of Ibrahim.<\/p>\n

As a young man, Ibrahim called for an end to idolatry. King Nimrod disagreed and had him cast from an upper storey window of his palace onto a waiting pyre. But before the flames could consume our hero, God turned them into water and the coals into fish.<\/p>\n

Thus, the pool remains an important holy site for devout Muslims. The fish are protected, with heinous punishment for those that attempt to steal them. For a few lira you can feed them, and many do, causing a turbid frenzy in the water. Satisfyingly, you can make the fish almost as frantic by reaching an empty hand out over the water and let Pavlov do the rest.<\/p>\n

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