During our several-day honeymoon in southeastern Türkiye, we covered hundreds of kilometers, following the borders with Syria and Iraq. We consider this as a visit to the Middle East, as in this area Turkish culture mixes with Arabic, Kurdish, and Aramaic and presents a unique geographical-cultural landscape.
During this time we visited the oldest religious building in the world dating back to Neolithic times (at least 6,000 years older than the pyramids in Egypt!). We climbed to the top of Mount Nemrut to pay our respects to King Antiochus I, who ruled the kingdom of Commagane (established after the fall of Alexander the Great’s empire). We admired beautiful ancient mosaics in Antakya and Gaziantep. We tried dishes that were too spicy for Aleksandra’s taste, and we stocked up on aromatic spices. We saw the ruins of cities that once lay on the Silk Road route… And, knowing the Mediterranean west of Turkey inside out, we felt a great cultural dissonance – moving further within the same country!