It was a three hour drive from Adana to Gaziantep, just 100km north of the Syrian border. Gaziantep is famous for a few things. Foremost, at least for the nerds amongst us, are the ancient Greek and Roman mosaics. And for the rest, superb pistachios and the world’s best baklava! It was going to be another incredible day in Eastern Turkey. But where were all the Western tourists? How has this escaped everyone’s notice? It’s unbelievable…
Finding some of the world’s wonders at the Gaziantep mosaic museum
The Mosaic Museum is seriously nothing short of absolutely extraordinary (but then we’re mosaic nerds!). This museum deserves to be considered one of the best in the world. The main building houses mosaics from the ancient city of Zeugma, about 50km from Gaziantep. Many of these mosaics were hurriedly uncovered and transported to Gaziantep as a result of the commissioning of a nearby dam in 2001. About 30% of the ancient city is now permanently under water. The mosaics in the main section of the museum date to Roman times, specifically the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
The mosaics once adorned the houses of the wealthy citizens of Zeugma and largely represent episodes from the Greek myths. It’s simply too much to write about each one so I will confine this entry to just two works and attach photos of the rest.
Now which to choose? The most risqué of all, of course! Here it is.
This depicts Pasiphaë. Her husband, King Minos of Crete was required to sacrifice “the fairest bull born in the herd” to Poseidon each year. One year, an extremely beautiful bull was born, Minos refused to sacrifice this bull, and sacrificed another, inferior bull instead. As punishment, Poseidon cursed his wife Pasiphaë to experience lust for the white, splendid bull.
Ultimately, Pasiphaë went to Daedalus and asked him to help her mate with the bull. Daedalus then created a hollow wooden cow covered with real cow-skin, so realistic that it fooled the Cretan Bull. Pasiphaë climbed into the structure, allowing the bull to mate with her. Pasiphaë fell pregnant and gave birth to a half-human half-bull creature that fed solely on human flesh. The child was named Asterius, after the previous king, but was commonly called the Minotaur (“the bull of Minos”). That’s a fairly saucy story!
The other major work in the museum that cannot be overlooked might be described as the Mona Lisa of the mosaic world, The Gypsy Girl. She has a darkened room tall to herself which we were lucky enough to visit all on our own.
This is a Roman work dated to the 2nd century CE. Because it’s fragmentary, there are different views on the subject of the mosaic. The settled view is that it represents a gypsy girl with tousled locks and a gold earring. But some argue that it could be a portrait of Alexander the Great. It’s a very arresting piece and the powerful energy that emanates from the face could easily suggest the second interpretation.
Here are images of some of the other works we also saw on the day.
Learning about the world of kebaps
By the time we had finished at the Mosaic Museum, we were ready for lunch. Fatih led us to a local kebab shop, Kebapçi Halil Usta where we were about to get a lesson in distinguishing the different types of kebabs.
So you thought a kebab, was a kebab, was a kebab! Noooooooo! There is the Adana kebab (spicy), the local Antep kebab (which includes couscous and mixed veg) and the Liurfa kebab (a mix of lamb meat and fat with less spicing). And these were only the ones we tried for lunch. For dinner we encountered yet more versions! Here are some snapshots, to give an idea of what was on offer. These were upstairs at the popular İmam Çağdaș Restaurant/Patisserie.
Checking out the market and local shops
After lunch we spent a few hours visiting the bazaar in the old town, which was fabulous. I finally managed to find wooden mammoul moulds which I’ve been on the search for since our trip to Andalusia last year. Here they are at the front edge of the photo.
Plus there were so many other things to see!
Not forgetting coffee and cakes…..
We made a quick stop for a Turkish coffee at a coffee house which has stood since 1635 – way before Europeans had caught onto coffee – it’s coming up for its 400th birthday! That blows my mind! Turkish coffee is an acquired taste – very strong and half the cup is filled with coffee grounds, so you must let it settle before drinking!
Of course, we had to stop and buy some baklava. Gaziantep is considered the pistachio capital of Turkey. A pistachio in Turkish is actually called “fistik antep” which gives you an idea of the importance of this industry in Gaziantep. The other great specialty of Gaziantep is baklava. Put the two together and you have the stuff that food dreams are made of!
We can attest to this having sampled baklava everywhere we travelled around Turkey and Greece. But the Gaziantep baklava is the butteriest and most delicate of all the balaklavas that we tested and the pistachio fillings are, of course, ultra fresh and flavourful!
Finally, we had such a lovely hotel to stay in that I need to include one final photograph. This is typical of the old town architecture in Gaziantep. Gorgoeus stonework.
Gaziantep, at least in the old town, remains very traditional and multi-ethnic. We enjoyed our opportunity to wander and were so pleasantly surprised that, notwithstanding we seemed to be the only tourists around, we were made to feel welcome. Definitely a town to visit!
