THE BEST AND the worst of Turkey sits in its mountainous east.
Some of the friendliest people we came across were out here. As we entered from Iran, my wife tossed of her hijab as we saw school girls with long hair flowing freely. The food was a welcome relief.
The sights and sounds, cities and history in the east are worth the long trek out. Regrettably, after decades of peace President Erdogan has brought war back to the Kurds. And the 12,000 year old city of Hasankeyf has been flooded for a dam.
With Armenian, Kurdish, Arab and Turk influences, the east has its own flavour. That comes out strongly in ancient ‘Urfa.
The men of Hasankeyf enjoy tea and a chat. Their historic town was flooded in the 2010s for a dam.
School kids jostle for camera position in Hasankeyf.
Inside the ruins of ancient Hasankeyf, which sat on the banks of the mghty Tigris river for a couple of thousand years.
After Iran, this humble restaurant in Turkey's mountaionous east was heaven. The owner came up with some things we hadn't ordered, saying simply "You are guests."
Some put the age of Hasankeyf settlement at 12,000 years. It has now been lost to progress.
Very few of the historic buildings were saved. 80,000 people displaced, moved to a city, unable to take their livestock.
A young boy in Hasankeyf, now probably late 20s, would have been uprooted to make way for the dam. He lived in a cave, and herded goats and sheep.
All this history, the remains and legacy of empires, families, is now under water.
Doğubeyazıt is the first town coming from Iran. Local men welcomed us in their tea shop.
Near the city of Van, a fine example of castle building.
Kurdish lads in the eastern hills.
Snow forms the backdrop for a hill in the Kurdish east.
A Russian motorcycle plies the narrow alleys of Sanliurfa, commonly called just "Urfa".
Young bakers in Urfa.
Culture, religions, language, trade, food and DNA have mixed in Urfa for millenia.
In the Urfa market.
Amenian, Arab, Muslim, Druze, Christian, Jew, Turk, Kurd have mixed, travelled and trdaed here since Biblical times. The Syrian war has seen many flee here, in numbers which strain the harmony.
Urfa had more character than any other city we visited in Turkey. Read about it in Dalrymple's "Holy Mountain."