Day 40 - Urfa

Breakfasted at a sensible time this morning for a change - 8.15 am :-) After breakfast we walked firstly to and through the bazaar and then headed to the same precinct around Abraham's cave and mosque as we visited late yesterday but this time in broad daylight. Again we checked out the pools of sacred fish and also visited a former Armenian church. We also paid a visit to the Mayor's office for a quick rundown on the city. Next we took to our minibus for a drive out of town to what (for me at least) was to be the highlight of the day, the archaeological dig at "Gobekli Tepe" a neolithic hilltop sanctuary dating back to the 10th millennium BC. This is an incredibly fascinating site and is believed to be the world's oldest known religious structure. The archaeologist in charge of the dig, German Klaus Schmidt was present and I had the opportunity to briefly ask him a couple of questions as he escorted a group of visitors from Germany around the site. The most interesting features of the site are the large limestone pillars many of which are adorned with reliefs of animals and strange pictograms. Back to town for lunch at a restaurant following this. Lunch was interesting in that we got to make up our own wraps with lamb, chicken, dips and salads - delicious. To walk off lunch we then returned to the precinct but this time we walked to the top of the hill overlooking the site where King Nimrod's catapult stands - a couple of tall pillars overlooking the lowland below. This plateau was originally defensible by virtue of a deep chasm on the opposite side and was accessible only via a drawbridge arrangement, now long since disappeared. We left the top via a stone staircase in a tunnel that went all the way to the bottom again. Next stop was to visit a tutoring college in the poorer part of town. This was established by Gulen movement members and it's ongoing funding is also courtesy, in part, thanks to the Gulen movement. The aim is to assist children who would otherwise (by dint of their poverty)  not have a chance at university, achieve the marks required by providing weekend and after hours tutoring. Our return to our hotel was via a recently unearthed series of mosaics that were once part of a complex of Roman buildings - fascinating stuff. A bit of a freshen up at the hotel and then we were off again for dinner at a restaurant (Sportyu) some distance away, where we had much the same as we had for lunch and again very tasty. Back to the hotel for a relatively early night in the end.