I’ve come to the conclusion that half the buildings in this country were built by one man…Sinan. That seems to be a way of guaranteeing your fame. Just build lots of buildings. Architecture was somewhat of a fascination for me in my younger years. I’ve already designed my own house, now how many people can do that? It would have been built by now too, except its more that 7,000 square feet and I haven’t married that gazillioaire Arabian Prince yet….but there’s still time. I like the buildings that Sinan has built. They’ve lasted a couple hundred years, which is not bad at all. Durability is a must. No one is famous for buildings that aren’t standing anymore. Gotta have buildings that last. Note to self: When I finish designing my own country I will need a Sinan to build marvelous buildings.
Today was a day of architecture. We visited old madressas and observed their architecture, purposes, foundations, fantastic tiles and artifacts. The two Madressas of choice were Minareli and Karatay Museum and Masressa. Contrary to popular belief madrassas were not built as terrorist centers. These here higher education centers that today would sit between high schools and universities. People learned to read and write, create poetry, not bombs, learn recite the Qur’an and study Islamic law. In fact, the Arabic word for school is Madressa. When people ask me where I work, I tell them, “in a Madressa.” They don’t look at me with strange eyes or call the CIA either. Bad media has once again hurt Middle Eastern image in the Western World.
After the madressas we then took a stroll to the Alaadin Mosque and Palace built in the Seljuk period around 1274 AD or the 13 century. What was unusual about this mosque was the fact that they used local columns from old Roman temples. Once the pagans were pushed out or forced to convert there was no longer a need for the temple so the Muslims took the columns and used them inside the mosque. Reuse, Reduce, Recycle people. It’s great…if you’re the victor. If you love Roman history then this stinks. This is very common in history. Why go out and look for new stones or carve your own column when there’s perfectly good one chillin right here and no one’s using it. Makes sense to me. Smart people. Of course, bad news for others. This is one of the reasons for the dilapidated state of the pyramids in Giza. Lots of people who needed homes that were made of nice stone. Now where can I get stones locally? Hmm…I know! There’s a huge pile of them in Giza! Hence, why many people in Egypt can claim a little bit of the pyramids in their living room!
Our next stop was at a Sufi order of the Haci Bektas led by a famous poet, Rumi. Most Westerners know Rumi for his beautiful poetry studied in many college classes. We saw the dervish lodge, the museum and Rumi’s Tomb.
We had the rest of the afternoon off which gave us a chance to go to the local mall. It was no different than being in Lakeside, really. Food courts, play area for the kids and tons of shopping. I’m keeping it on budget though. I’ve been good about spending since I’ve gotten here. Fulbright gave us $450 in cash for spending money and $150 to buy items for our classroom, so I haven’t needed to dip into my cash at all. With one more week left, I’m going to make Fulbright money stretch as much as possible. I did see a few things that I’d like so I might hit the mall tomorrow, just in case.
We had dinner on top of the 43 floor of the local skyscraper Sini. It was a revolving restaurant and the food was delicious. Nice way to spend a free day!
No comments:
Post a Comment