Eastern Turkey’s ties to the world

When I signed on for the 22-day/21-night “Turkey’s Biblical East” tour organized and led by Tamer Teoman of Teo World Culture Tours (New York, NY; 888/444-1110, www.teoworldculturetours.com), I knew little about that part of the world. Anatolia? I can’t say I even knew what part of Turkey that was. As I studied a map and pinpointed the towns and places we would visit, ghosts from my old schoolbooks came marching out of the past.

Anatolia is what we called Asia Minor. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers start there, and between them is the northern part of what the ancients called Mesopotamia, “land between the rivers.” Xerxes, Darius and Alexander the Great all marched through there, building and losing empires. They were followed by the Romans.

Some of the earliest Christian communities arose there. St. Paul was born in Tarsus and returned there as he began to preach. Turks migrated in from the northeast, Arab conquerors came up from the south, and Europe’s crusaders came marching through on their way to Jerusalem.

Our August tour was priced at $3,800, land only, including accommodations and some meals. (In 2009, Teo World is offering this tour Aug. 26-Sept. 17, 2009, for $3,800, land only; the single supplement is $600. Tours are limited to 15 people.)

As we drove through eastern Turkey, there would be great stretches of pastureland with only sheep and goats in sight. Suddenly we would see in the distance a ruined castle on a hill or the majestic arches of an ancient Roman bridge. In some places the countryside looked like the golden July hills of California, then it would get steeper and rougher and resemble the rockier parts of Colorado.

We drove from the seacoast of the Black Sea southeast to the chain of mountains that include Mt. Ararat and down past beautiful Lake Van with its fascinating 10th-century Armenian church built on an island. This part of Anatolia once was part of an extensive Armenian empire.

We saw the ancient, the traditional and the dramatically modern, an example of the latter being the giant hydroelectric dams on the Tigris and Euphrates. There are still small villages, but more and more young people are leaving the countryside for work in the cities. We marveled at the forests of highrise apartments being built. Though these apartment buildings were uniform in shape, they often were painted a variety of bright colors and patterns.

We visited Sumela, the Byzantine monastery built on a cliff high above a beautiful pine forest. The climb up to it was slow and in some places tricky. As our group was making its way up, a larger group of Americans from a cruise ship was coming down. Each of their group, as they passed us, said, “It may not be easy going, but, oh, so worth it!”

I wasn’t surprised that the food was so good or that beautiful Mt. Ararat was awesome, but I was surprised and delighted by how the many pieces of history that I saw and touched — 9,000 years’ worth — fit into the puzzle of world history in my head.

Everywhere we went, shopkeepers were friendly. While people on the street generally ignored us, occasionally high school boys approached wanting to practice their English. Oddly, I felt less anxious in eastern Turkey than I did at home! Then I realized that during our trip I wasn’t watching the nightly news with its stories of murders, swindles and health scares.

Since I don’t speak Turkish, there was little chance for conversation with locals. However, on the difficult climb down from the monastery of Sumela, Turkish kindness reached out to me in another way.

I was making my way through a treacherous path of tangled roots, gingerly feeling my way along with my cane, when I suddenly felt a firm, supporting hand under my arm. I looked over my shoulder. It was a middle-aged Turkish woman who, leaving her friends, had moved forward. Wordlessly, she helped me navigate this rough spot. As the path smoothed again, she just as suddenly melted back among her friends.

My trip through eastern Turkey was all that Tamer had promised it would be and more — a strenuous adventure but, as the tourists at Sumela said, “Oh, so worth it!”

JOANNA FOSTER

COPPOLA, Bristol, RI