Arther & Ayse’s Gobeklitepe Adventure 019/024

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Şanlıurfa sounds a bit like shan-lur-urf-ah. Göbeklitepe is about 7 miles from city of Şanlıurfa, but as they drew nearer, Ayşe suggested they first go a little farther beyond to get a sense of the region. She pointed, “That’s Harran, said to be the site of one of the first ever universities in known history. C’mon, let’s go through Aleppo Gate!” So, they did. During the late 8th and 9th centuries Harran was a centre for translating works of astronomy, philosophy, natural sciences, and medicine from Greek to Syriac by Assyrians, and then to Arabic, bringing the knowledge of the classical world to the emerging Arabic-speaking civilization in the south.

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“What are those? Giant beehives?” asked Arther catching sight of what looked like, well, giant beehives. “They are traditional homes, made of mud or clay bricks designed to retain cool air in very hot outside temperatures and withstand earthquakes, violent wind storms and seasonal heavy rains.” Apparently, the design works and been used for at least 3,000 years. Ayşe knew that getting a flavour of the area would help give perspective and sense of being to Göbeklitepe.

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“Hey, what goes on there?” as Arther noticed people in a line, holding each other and moving in rhythm accompanied by musicians. “They are local people line dancing in the traditional way. May be it’s a wedding or similar celebration.” “You dancin’ Ayşe?” “You askin’ Arther?” “I’m askin’!” “I’m dancin’!” Arther and Ayşe took a few moments to join the line dancing party.

To be continued….
Arther & Ayse’s Gobeklitepe Adventure on Tap Blog. A spontaneous social media story experiment originally tested on FakeBook 19 November 2017. Gobeklitepe is an ancient megalith site on the Turkish-Syrian border said to be at least 11,600 years old. Is it just a bunch of old stones stood in Turkish soil or a game changer for a myriad of reasons? This story aims to explore the possible implications and touch upon issues and subject matter posted about on Tap Blog.