Well this week has actually been exciting. As I mentioned in the last post we had been off to Rasafa last "weekend" and then we scooted over to Turkey for a quick visa correction. We are now having 3 days off to celebrate the Eid, or end of Ramadan. It's kind of a funny thing though because we are having today off for the Eid but it is actually not the Eid. It is determined by an imam somewhere based on the size of the moon. When we went to bed last night we assumed the moon was the right size and today would begin the Eid, well we were wrong. And we've already scheduled the days off so today is not the Eid, but it is still vacation as far as I'm concerned. I hope to head off to Qamishli today to post this and maybe visit a few shops before they are closed for the Eid.
Ok, where to begin about the last week. We left Thursday after breakfast in a mini-caravan of two vans for Rasafa. About 2/3 of the expedition members went totalling us about 18 people. It's a five hour drive to Rasafa and trust me, in a Syrian mini-bus that feels pretty long. We arrived just in time for afternoon tea (For some reason, all expeditions have afternoon tea - I guess we are just hungry). After eating cookies to our hearts content and being debriefed on the sleeping arrangements and bathroom rules we were off to visit the site. I really can't say enough for the good time they showed us. The director gave us a tour of all the important sites, including a Basilica built around 500 AD (still standing), City gates from the same time period and a mosque built halfway inside the church.
A little background on Rasafa that I gathered while on the tour. Basically the site became an important Christian site after San Sergio (Saint Sergius) was martyred there. He was in the Roman army and he and his friend (whose name I forget) were arrested and marched along the road back to Palmyra. His friend died first and is enshrined at another site. San Sergio made it as far as Rasafa before he died. He was then beheaded to his head could be returned to Palmyra and his body was buried in Rasafa. It eventually became an important place of pilgrimage where you came to recieve blessings. In the Islamic period it became an important capital of the Ummayeds and a mosque was built near the grave of San Sergio who apparently was so important he was revered by both Muslim and Christian worshippers.
The site of Rasafa is in the desert, a real desert, not like it is around Mozan where there is actually plenty of water. They based the city around the control of water nearby and there are amazing "water gates" that diverted the water into huge cisterns that allowed the city to exist even in the summer when their was no water. It's really a beautiful site and my pictures do not do it justice.
After our tour we headed back to the main Basilica for what their team calls the "sundowner" in which they basically choose a nice site around the ruins of the city and have beers while watching the sunset. Apparently the do it every night. It was nice to relax after the long day. We headed back to the house to wash up for dinner and enjoyed a lovely dinner out on their patio.
After dinner, one of the girls who has worked both in Mozan and Rasafa, named Mada, organized for us to go out in the dark and have some drinks in the Basilica, lit by candles. It was really amazing. Massimo brought his guitar and we sang in the ancient church and enjoyed the starlight. It was really a once in a lifetime experience - to be sitting in an ancient church, with no roof, looking up at the stars and thinking of all the people who were there before. I don't have any pictures because no picture could do it justice.
We had all requested to sleep outside as it is much cooler and more fun, in addition to being banned at Mozan. I took my cot up to the roof of the bathroom and 6 of us slept out under the stars. What we failed to anticipate was exactly HOW COLD it would be. I woke up in the middle of the night freezing. I put on another shirt, wrapped my sheet around me like a cocoon and then put my kefiyah over my head to keep my head warm then burrowed down under the light blanket they had draped over my cot to keep it clean. Just when I thought I had settled in to a tolerable level of coldness where I could actually sleep the muezzin started the call to prayer and it sounded like he was singing right in my ear. For those who don't know, he sings the first call to prayer at 3:30 am. So after that I caught a few more minutes sleep before the donkey and the rooster started up at 4:30 or so. At 6 I finally crawled out of my cocoon to see my fellow roof sleepers all bundled up as well.
We had some tea and then it was off to visit the Ummayed palace excavations. They were less interesting to me than the ruins of the Christian quarter but we did see where a very wealthy ruler(maybe a caliph?) had put in an elaborate garden with pavilions and water pumps in the middle of the desert. The extravagance would have been amazing, although now its just ruins and dirt. We headed back to the house for breakfast which was delicious then a quick trip out to see the cisterns before we had to leave. The cisterns can not be explained in words. You climb down this tiny narrow passage way in the dark and then you are delivered into what appears to be a huge cathedral with arched ceilings and beautiful stone columns, all underground. This beautiful construction was for the storage of water. It's truly amazing and I'll post some pictures but they do not do it justice either.
After the cisterns it was back in the car for the return trip to Mozan. We took a more leisurely trip back and stopped along Lake Assad to visit Castle Jabbar, which as far as I can tell is a mishmash of ancient and medieval structures that have been poorly reconstructed. It was still fun though and we climbed up the ruins to check out the views of Lake Assad. After we got our fill of climbing we had a picnic on the side of the lake and some of the guys went swimming in their underwear. I decided just to wade in a little until the fish started nibbling my toes and then I was done. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon though but then it was back in the bus and on the way again. It was a long trip home and when we arrived we were "destroyed" as the Italians say. All in all though it was an amazing trip.
Of course things are never slow or boring around here so the day after we returned from Rasafa, it was off to Turkey to renew our visas. Most of them were expired so we had to wait several hours at the border before heading of to Turkey just to turn around and come back. We spent maybe a half hour in Turkey but it was enough time for me to secure a GIANT bread. It made me think of Anthony and so I had to have it. I shared it with everyone and there was still some left. The best part is they sell it out of a glass box on the street. It was delicious too. I'll post a picture of me and the bread as well.
After Turkey things settled down a little bit and it was back to work. The excavations have begun but I'm not really involved with them. I did spend some time with the surveyor, Hans, learining to use the total station (which is not computerized) so I can take measurements in the outer city after he leaves. It's a useful skill I think. I'm working most of the time on outer city materials now although it's slow going and I'm not quite sure what I'm doing. At least I can feel like I am making progress on my own projects a little. I'm definitely getting homesick and this last month will probably seem slow even though it will actually go by fast. I hope to achieve something before I leave but we'll see.
September 6th was Jim's 70th birthday so I'll give him a shoutout here. We planned a nice formal party for him and everyone dressed up and we had cocktails on the patio. It was a great party and I'm so glad I got to celebrate with him. He's really been an amazing mentor for me as I do my work here in Mozan.
Now we have the three days off and I'll probably spend them working. The curse of the dissertation I guess. Happy new school year to everyone back in America. Stay tuned until next week :)
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