History disappears under the waves of progress

Of all the conflicting observations that can be made about Turkey, there is no argument that the country is bent on progress. Mainstream urban Turks see themselves as modern, developed, and European. Outside of the major cities, the countryside is the polar opposite of this image of "modern" Turkey. Goats walk the streets as numerous as cars, women's heads are covered, people ride to market on donkeys with saddles and motorcycles dressed as camels.


I saw a woman take off with this guy faster than you would believe possible.

There are, of course, some casualties of the rapid pace of development. Here in the southeast, one of those casualties was the ancient city of Zeugma. Partly in order to appease Kurdish separatists, a massive damn was built on the Euphrates river (both the Tigris and Euphrates originate in Turkey), creating farmland out of former desert and producing power for growing cities. An international team of archaeologists worked to rescue the city before it was flooded, and the results of their efforts are in Gaziantep's beautiful museum. The rest was destroyed by the rising water, was stolen, or was reburied for protection. Most of what they recovered were these fantastic mosaics depicting scenes from Greek/Roman myths.




This is obviously just a taste of what was there before the damn was built, and what they couldn't save was reburied to preserve it.

I found a website about the rescue, if anyone's interested in more info: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/zeugma/about.html

Back on the Adriatic, near Pergamon, I visited the site of a huge Roman thermal spa, with Olympic sized hot pools, that is almost forgotten and due to be wiped out by another damn.

Only local opposition has saved Allianoi thus far, and currently the damn stands half-finished.

More background can be found here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,,1887394,00.html

Obviously this is a complicated issue, as the country needs water and power, and you can barely dig a hole in this place without finding some ancient ruin. Check out these sites and decide for yourself.

More coming soon!

Deb