A Day in Kayseri!

Hello!

According to the weather forecast, it is currently (at noon) 16 degrees F outside, but it feels like 9 degrees F.  I would agree with that; we are just warming up now!

Night-time photo of mosque across the street; love the green lights!

Park with hotel in the background

Up this morning around 7:30 and down for breakfast about 9 am.  Fewer people today, but many still in ski clothing of various sorts.  Lots of families with small children here, and we were wondering why they weren’t in school but it turns out that this is the spring mid-term break.  It seem, too, that skiing has a priority here that we don’t know about! 

Today we’ve decided to go to the Anadolu Selcuklu Medeniyetler Muzesi.  In other words, the Museum of Seljuk Civilization. 

Fountain in the snow!

As R pointed out, as this is WAY out of our period – 12-13^th C. AD, we wanted to read a little bit about what we would be seeing.  According to reviews I’ve read on line, as well as in our one tour book, the Museum is very modern with computer imaging etc. – with the only problem being that most of the descriptions are in Turkish only.  So…out we went, to find that it is very close to the hotel – which is good, but also that it is REALLY cold outside, which isn’t. 

Turns out that right next to the hotel (which is really in the center of everything, except if you want to visit the Archeological Museum) is a lovely park – Ataturk Park, named after the founding father of Turkey. 

We were so surprised to see that the fountains were actually fountaining, and were quite lovely!  Don’t know how much longer they will continue to fountain, though, as it is cold outside and a great deal of ice is forming up around them.  The Museum is also in the park, which made it really easy to find.  However, first point about the museum:  It is a 12-13^th C AD building with two really large and open courtyards – and all the doors to the various rooms are open, and there is no heat at all.  Bummer…

One of the doors to the museum

Again, we were the only folks visiting – and they even sent someone to open the small gift shop for us, which was nice.  Turns out, the building had originally been built as a hospital. 

The 8-pointed star was the emblem of the Seljuks

Detail on star (double click for a larger photo)

It claims to be one of the first training hospitals in the country.  There were exhibits first about the movement of the Seljuks from the Chinese steppes of Mongolia westward.  (Which is interesting, as so many of the other prior populations were peoples moving eastward from the Balkans and Europe!) They seem to have overthrown the Byzantine Empire, at least in central Anatolia and established their rule from the Hindu Kush to the Aegean, but as their sphere of influence lasted only about 200 years, it would be very interesting to know from a hereditary standpoint, how much Seljuk DNA is present in today’s Turkish population.  

One other thing that I noticed is that there are wonderful Hittite artifacts in many places in Turkey, but there really wasn’t a lot of the Seljuk Empire left to see. 

Map with various Seljuk areas highlighted

One of the main courtyards ... note the snow!

Robert points out that the Hittites tended to use rock and stone, which tends to wear well, but there are also many examples of Hittite and Chalcolithic pottery around.  It seems with the Seljuks, most of their porcelain was broken, and most of their metal melted down to make other things. Interesting, I thought. 

We had a good look around the museum, which included examples of typical patient rooms … trust me, you wouldn’t want to go there for medical treatment! (Especially in the winter!)  But similar to some other Near Eastern populations, music therapy was often used to try and cure patients.  Heat and the Haman (typical Turkish bath, using water, steam and heat) were also used.  (Which might be preferable to the Greek hospital in ancient Pergamum, whereby patients were supposed to dream while they slept, and then tell the doctors about their dreams, and the doctors would come up with a cure based on the dreams.) 

Seljuk metal vase

Seljuk ceramics

The twin-snake symbol was used here, like today’s caduceus; the two snakes with wings wound around the staff of an ancient God and often used in the present day as symbols for hospitals and medical care. 

Hall for music and water therapy

Musical instrument

The final room of the museum was actually heated – although with the door open, it wasn’t exactly warm.  But it contained a very interesting exhibit on weights and measures – starting with the ancient Greeks, and going through Byzantine and Seljuk times.

Haman -- Turkish bath room

Caduceus

Finally, back out into the c-o-l-d again, and we decided to head back to the hotel for a warm up before attempting any other expeditions.  Sat in the hotel’s main-floor lounge and R had Turkish tea, and I had hot chocolate.  Just holding the cup felt good!  Have I mentioned how I hate being cold?  We then walked around the corner to the local market, where we picked up some water and snacks “just in case” (for the snacks, that is, definitely not the water!) 

Robert and hot tea!

I say we “walked” but it is so incredibly slick outside, that we probably skated more than walked to the store!  Back to the hotel then, and we’ll have lunch sometime soon.  I’m thinking the pub downstairs again, which was wonderful yesterday.  R will probably insist on getting something new, but as this will be our last lunch here, I’m definitely looking for a repeat!

More later!

m

xxx

Just up from a lovely nap and thought I would finish today’s blog and get it posted.  We went down to the pub about 1 pm for lunch, possibly attracted by the smell of popping popcorn.  We sat a little farther away today from those distracting MTV televisions – good grief! 

Pub and popcorn!

That is a LOT of beer...

I, of course, ordered the same thing – beef fajita wrap – that I had yesterday, and it was just as good.  R ordered the grilled chicken dish, which came on skewers like shisk tavuk with fried potato wedges, and he ordered an order of very good onion rings as well.  Oh!  And we got a nice, but smallish bowl of popcorn as well.  That got R started on trying to find the beginning of popcorn, but all he was able to make out is that it has been with us for thousands of years.  I know I have seen barrels of un-popped corn in the market here. 

R's onion rings

R's chicken and potatoes with pepper sos! (sauce)

Lunch was delicious, and R even managed to take a photo of the beer “dispenser” that was on our neighbor’s table!!  Don’t know how, but the guy was able to drink the entire the entire thing – must have been more than a half gallon!  Back upstairs after that, only to discover that all I have to do is touch our room key card to deactivate it!  Nice floorman let me in, while R went downstairs to get a new card.  Naps first, and then we’ll see how much energy we have!  It continues to be COLD – 18 degrees F, feels like 13.  What a surprise!

m

xxx