Maria Agustina Blanco Rodriguez Kılıç Seyiroloji Editor: We are delighted to present the first article in our series, ‘Turkey Through the Eyes of Foreigners.’ In this series, you’ll explore Turkey from the perspectives of foreigners, through their experiences and impressions.
Hello! My name is Agustina, I’m from Argentina and I went to Türkiye in December of 2023. During my long visit to Istanbul for 7 months I was delighted with everything I saw: a different culture. It’s not only costumes, it’s new colors, new textures, new tastes, new sounds that changed my life completely. Within those months, in May, my husband and I decided to go from Cappadocia to the ancient city of Sanliurfa, with the main goal to grasp with our own eyes: Göbeklitepe.
Urfa and it’s legends
At the beginning of May, we took a 9 hour bus ride at night from Cappadocia to Şanlıurfa. We watched Göbeklitepe documentaries on the way to feed ourselves up and be prepared.
The first day we toured the city and, knowing the story behind Balikligöl only made it more magical. Legend has it, the prophet Abraham was punished by burning at a giant bonfire by Nimrot, a tyrant governor who considered himself God. When Abraham came into contact with the fire, God performed a miracle and transformed the bonfire into water and the sticks into fish and he was saved.
City and Food
The mosque next to the pool just gives more epic to the whole story. In it, you can enter and people make a line to drink from a fountain. It’s believed that it is holy. Next to the mosque and pond you can visit a lovely park woven from lake branches, full of coffees and places to eat.
After having lunch there, we went to Şanliurfa Archaeology Museum which we could pass with Müze Kart. In there you have an exhibition of another ancient discovery named “Nevalı Çori”. And of course not only details of the investigation in process about Göbeklitepe, but a full-scale replica of the temple. We could take advantage of being there as much time as we want, playing archaeologists, observing the giant monoliths and doing what every person interested in the topic would do –try to imagine what that temple was for and the meaning of their symbols.
Coming from Istanbul, what surprised me the most were the beige and yellow tones of narrow streets that gave me the whole middle eastern vibes. Everytime we went out I was looking forward to the moment we went back to the hotel so that I could walk inside those streets.
Regarding their culinary offerings I had a hard time being vegetarian (like in whole Türkiye tbh :P) I survived with eggplant and gözleme on daily basis, but my husband enjoyed their cuisine very much, he knew kebap and lahmacun was amazing so he could positively tasted it. The part I’m simply not going to forget, since desserts are my favourite thing in the world, is their Künefe. We ordered half because they make giant ones, and after eating it was hard to breathe.
12.000 years of history at our feet
The second day we woke up really early eager for the adventure that was coming up. We took one bus to the city center and then we waited for the 0 bus that goes to Göbeklitepe. There is one coming every hour and it takes approximately 30-40 minutes to reach your destination. You can pay it with a credit card. Once you get there, there’s a tiny museum with a coffee place. For entering the attraction you can do it with müze kart or purchasing the ticket, which is 36 TL (for Turkish citizens). A municipality bus takes you to the temple and also brings you back to that spot.
To be honest with all the videos, images, readings, etc. I was feeling prepared for what I was going to see, but being there the amount of questions is only getting bigger and the mystery makes you want to grab a pick and shovel and start to excavate yourself.
The discovery of that was in 1963, but it wasn’t until 1990 that the archeologist Klaus Schmidt and his team started with the excavations. What was just a curiosity for anthropological improvement purposes, ended up changing everything we’d known about humanity until this time.
I definitely recommend this trip to everyone who has the opportunity of visiting Türkiye and is interested in history, to visit there. The trip was fulfilling and went beyond our expectations. I think May is a good time to go. Being south of Türkiye I was expecting much much higher temperatures, but it was endurable.
