En route to Mount Nemrut
We left Mardin at lunchtime so we had time to explore the city in the morning. I wanted to go and see the Kasimiye Madressa, located some way out of the town. It was completed in 1445 and has some ribbed domes and has a reproduction of an elephant clock designed by the 12th centuryMuslim engineer, Al-Jazari.
I knew it was a long way out of town, so I set off early. I had walked for an hour and a half and still couldn't see any minarets or domes. There were fields, trees and olive groves but nothing on the horizon. If I walked any further it would be all down hill making the return journey all uphill. And cutting into my time that I could spend in the madressa.
I decided to cut my losses and walk back (uphill) to the hotel in the centre.
We caught taxis out of town to where the truck was parked as it was too large to negotiate the narrow cobbled streets of the old city.
We drove through the new part of town as we worked our way west towards Kahta. After leaving the town, we drove up to higher ground and there was snow lying on the ground and fog. It made progress slow. It was a boring journey as the windows misted up and there was little to see. Even wiping the windows was of little benefit as the ground was covered with snow and the fog limited visibility.
In places the fields had been ploughed and rocks removed to sit in neat rows along the edges of the fields or piled up against telegraph poles in the middle of fields. We dropped to cross a bridge over the Euphrates which had been damned by the huge Ataturk Dam.
By the time we arrived in Kahta, it had stopped snowing or raining but it was still cold. And we had had some bad news. Our local fixer had advised that there had been two metres of snow on Mount Nemrut so access was not possible either for our truck or our second option of a four wheel drive enabled minibus.
We were offered alternative local tours but it is not the same when hearts had been set on seeing the carved heads at Mount Nemrut.
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