 Beyond Ararat: A Journey Through Eastern Turkey
Bettina Selby
John Murray
Bettina Selby's latest journey takes her to the cradle of civilization, where the Tigris and the Euphrates rise. It is a corridor of ancient invasion fought over by Persians, Armenians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Turks, Arabs, Kurds and Mongols, with today's survivors living uneasily together under Turkish rule.
The journey begins along the strange and beautiful Black Sea coast of Turkey, the path of Xenophon and the Ten Thousand, of Jason and the Golden Fleece. From the Russian border her way leads south, up through rugged mountains to the ghost town of Ani and to Mount Ararat, the legendary resting place of Noah's Ark. From this fabled centre of the world she cycles down to Lake Van and the supposed site of the Garden of Eden, past robber castles and vast ruined palaces. Riding through Kurdistan close to Iran, Iraq and Syria only weeks after the end of the Gulf War spelt danger: kidnapping was rife, comforts few. It was a hard journey through some of the most magnificent scenery in the world - and some of its least predictable people. A lone cyclist never knew whether to expect kindness or stones and bullets.
Travelling alone and by bicycle offers unique relationships with both land and people. Bettina interweaves her account with insights into the problems of an area re-establishing its position as the bridge between East and West. She brings alive the historical background so vital for understanding this troubled part of the world.
Since Bettina Selby discovered the worth of a bicycle in exploring the wilder places of the world, she has pedalled thousands of miles and visited many countries.
She has served a brief spell in the WRAC, followed by a career in photography and seven years as a teacher. She is also a graduate of London University, where she obtained an honours degree in world religions as a mature student. Bettina began travelling and writing when her children grew up and left home.
Contents
Illustrations / vii
Acknowledgements / viii
1. An Idea Takes Shape / 1
2. Sailing to Byzantium / 7
3. Coming Down to the Black Sea / 15
4. Getting to Grips with the Pontic Alps / 26
5. A Byzantine Naval Base / 38
6. Through the Mountains to Sinope / 45
7. Amazons and Hazel-nuts / 55
8. An Emperor’s Garden in Trebizond / 67
9. Where Eagles Fly / 78
10. City of a Thousand and One Churches / 88
11. Approaching Mount Ararat / 101
12. On Noah’s Mountain / 109
13. South to Lake Van / 121
14. Cats and Kings / 132
15. Round About Eden / 143
16. A Tricky Ride to Tatvan / 152
17. On the Walls of Diyarbakir / 163
18. Along the Banks of the Tigris / 176
19. With the Christians of Tur Abdin / 188
20. No Friend of Caesar / 199
Equipment for the Journey / 210
In the interest of clarity accents in Turkish words have been used sparingly.
‘Sh’ has occasionally been substituted for $ to help with pronunciation.
Illustrations
(between pages 116 and 117)
1. The Sea of Marmara
2. Mount Ararat
3. The Sumela Monastery, Trebizond
4. The Church of St Gregory the Illuminator, Ani
5. The Mosque of Selim the Grim, Dogubayazit
6. The Ishak Pasha Palace
7. The Great Rock of Van
8. Church of the Holy Cross, Akhtamar Island
9. Hosap Castle and the bridge over the Giizelsu
10. A Kurdish nomad camp
11. Flocks being watered on Nemrut Dagi
12. Seljuk tiirbe
13. Courtyard of the Great Mosque, Diyarbakir
14. Hasan Keyf
15. Remains of the Byzantine bridge over the Tigris
16. Harran
All photographs were taken by the author
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All travellers are dependent upon the goodwill of the people of the countries they pass through. Although Eastern Turkey presented dangers in plenty, the kindnesses I received far outweighed the hostility. I therefore owe a debt of gratitude to a great number of people who cannot be named in this book.
I would like to thank Jock Murray for the introduction to kind friends of his in Istanbul, who have now become valued friends of mine also.
Travellers are lucky if they have a partner who does not resent their being away for long periods. I would particularly like to thank my husband for his patience and forbearance and for keeping everything going in my absence.
I would also like to thank all those who have enjoyed my books and written to say so. Their encouragement has helped tremendously when the going was hard.
This book is dedicated to
Xenophon and the Ten Thousand
who also had a tricky time
in the mountains of Eastern Turkey
1
An Idea Takes Shape
‘And God Remembered Noah …’. These words lodged in my mind long after I had outgrown the charm of stiff little pairs of wooden animals going neatly two by two into a fat-bellied overcrowded ark. Such wonderfully portentous words, ‘And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided…’. And the Ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month on the mountains of Ararat ...’.
The spark that fired the idea of making a long journey towards the mountain where Noah’s Ark was supposed to have come to rest, however, came about as a result of chancing upon a particular passage in a book by a nineteenth-century explorer named James Bryce, who had actually climbed Ararat:
Below and around, included in this single view, seemed to lie the whole cradle of the human race, from Mesopotamia in the south to the great wall of the Caucasus that covered the northern horizon, the boundary for so many ages of the civilized world. If it was indeed here that man first set foot on the unpeopled earth, one could imagine how the great dispersal went as the races spread themselves along the course of the great rivers down to the Black and Caspian Seas, and over the Assyrian Plain to the shores of the Southern …
Bettina Selby
Beyond Ararat
A Journey Through Eastern Turkey
John Murray
John Murray
Beyond Ararat
A Journey Through
Eastern Turkey
Beyond Ararat
© Bettina Selby 1993
First published in 1993 by John Murray (Publishers) Ltd.,
50 Albemarle Street, London W1X 4BD
The moral right of the author has been asserted
All rights reserved
Unauthorized duplication
contravenes applicable laws
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0-7195-5022-X
Typeset in 12/1314 pt Bembo
by Colset (Pty) Limited, Singapore
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Bookcraft Ltd.
Jacket photograph of the mosque at the Ishak Pasha Palace,
Dogubayazit, courtesy of the author
Designed by Mary Staples
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