The Plains of Mesopotania

Mardin Bazaar
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I shall be brief!

I arrive in Mardin as the sun is setting. The streets wind unforgivingly uphill with 14kg on your back. I eventually find a hotel, not one the Hilton will be taking over any time soon but the choice was zero. The streets were noticeably quiet, with many shutters already pulled down for the night.

As I was closing the door of my room to go to bed, an old man in the next room was also on the move. On seeing a tourist next to him he got all excited, standing to attention like Basil Faulty he blurts: 'Good morning'. I did manage to keep a striagh face.

Ulu Cami Mosque, Mardin
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Out and about the next day, after being woken by thunder and torrential rain, I found the bazaar. It's like the town is terraced, leading down hill towards the plain. In the market, a narrow alley runs parallel to what is the town's main street. The small winding parallel street is where the business is happening though. Transport of merchandise is with donkeys, decked out in their Sunday best. There's no doubt when one is on the way, their chiming bells ringing to clear the way. The bazaar is full of the normal essentials for the people in their day to day lives. This is their supermarket. The area is poor and this is where the people expect to come to find their daily needs cheapest.

View Over The Plains From Sultan Isa Madressi, Mardin
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Up on the higher terrace from the main street is the Sultan Isa Medressi dating from 1385 with it's beautifully ornate recessed doorway. The birds eye view over the plains below is refreshing. The mountains extend westwards from the town, but lead to the totally flat, lush, checkered plains below. The dull day that it was even managed to bring out it's beauty. I revisited the next morning when it was sunny. A police man on duty there was delighted to see me and sat me down for coffee overlooking the plains below. He really was a gent, not from the area. He was even showing off the workmanship on the handle of his gun (unloaded of course)!! He was concerned that I hadn't seen any of the Christian churches in town, so takes his own map out of his bag and gives it to me, directing me to the Forty Martyrs Church. I eventually track it down with it's simple bell tower standing out in the surrounding honeycomb alleys.

Sultan Isa Madressi, Mardin
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The town is crowned with a golden castle, but it's used by the turkish army so off limits. This has historically been one of the trouble spots in times of Kurdish problems. It's another one of the traditional Kurdish strongholds. For a small town with so few tourists there are a surprising number of 'hello money' kids.

As seems to be the norm, when light fell, the streets emptied. At about ten though, the Mardin Kiddy Underbelly seem to come out of the woodwork and be making a nuisance of themselves. Waves of them walking down the street, chanting god knows what, with bangers and crackers. The police man that I was talking to the next day said they're a problem, but they get it hard to do anything with them. A nice little town, but nothing to set the world alight.