Turkish Mosaic circuit. Day 3 (260 kilometre distance covered)

6th October 2010
Mersin - Tarsus - Antioch

We have had no time to visit Mersin, as we left fairly early to Tarsus, known as the birthplace of Saint Paul, so as to  witness the only remains which testify his presence, a covered well, Christian worshippers still  come to on pilgrimage, as well as the Roman bridge of Justinian.

Saint Paul's covered well (Left).

The Roman bridge of Justinian (Right).

We have today tasted the real Turkish cuisine at the restaurant of the hotel we shall be staying at for the night. Too good to be described ... from the bread to the sauces, some of which were fairly spicy and therefore led to an initial "negative" reaction, which was soon to be changed, once they were mixed with a sort of yogurt like pasty sauce that accompanied all of the plates. The dessert was amazingly delicious ...  a wallnut stufed  type of moisty cookie dipped in honey (called kadayif) ... whose flavour was to "accompany" me all afternoon, as I would soon find out.

Soon after lunch we proceeded to Antakya, founded by the Seljucids in 300 B.C. After World War I it pertained to the French Syria territories until 1939, for which reason it still is considered as having a "French" touch of class.

View from Saint Peter's churchyard.

We then visited  the rock carved  church of Saint Peter. Though not very impressive with a depth of just 13 metres, width of 9.5 and height of 7 metres respectively, it has played a significant role regarding Christianity and is one of its  oldest churches, whose founding can be traced to the the Bible's Acts of the Apostles. 

Saint Peter's Church 13th century Gothic façade (Left). Saint Peter's church altar (Right).










The next stop was Antakya's Archeological Museum, which has the second largest collection of Roman mosaics in the world. Because of having visited Bardo Museum in Tunes, holding the highest collection I can't say I was too impressed, though I must consider that some of  the  Roman mosaic  bold themes did surprise me.

Some of the Roman mosaics dating from the 1st to 5th centuries AD in exhibition at the Antakya's Museum


The Archeological Museum was not just about Roman mosaics though, once several halls were dedicated to other aspects of Roman and Byzantine culture. Amongst some of those were Roman marble sarcophagi and  decorated columns, worth being seen.

8th Century BC Twin Lions on a column pediment (Left). Detail on one of the Roman marble sarcophagi (Right).




Prior to another fabulous Turkish cuisine dinner we walked to the left of our hotel in search of some waterfalls our guide had suggested we visit, which were not exactly what we had been expecting, but this walk allowed me to appreciate woolen embroidered  woven wall carpets produced by Syrian craftsmen. The naive style caught my attention and I ended up buying one of these square wall carpets.

I have a feeling the trip has just begun ... and I am looking forward to tomorrow's part of the circuit. Could it be that the food has further helped us to imerge into the Turkish culture ... or could it be because we approaching the Eastern Anatolia region? I don't know ... I just particularly liked today's trip.