Sun Rises in the East, and So Will Christ: Part I

The East: sheep, wheat, poppy and mountains

From dawn till dusk, the Mesopotamia valley of eastern Turkey offers scenes as if taken from ancient tales. Spring's red poppies and green wheat fields cover the valley and meet the snow-tipped mountains that remind you of the past winter. Stones of this region have the color of saffron; so when you see a mustard monastery springing up in the middle of this red-green valley, the view is just spectacular. You wish you live and die there, and do nothing but herd sheep.

Dorms of Mor Gabriel Monastery

We visited two monasteries and a church during my trip to Mardin: Deyrulzafaran Monastery, Mor Gabriel Monastery, and Anıtlı Church. These 5th century Syriac Orthodox churches are still active; they provide services for local Syriacs and train clergymen who reside in the temples' dorms. For reasons still unknown to me though, Mor Gabriel Monastery seemed to be the most mesmerizing among them. May be it was the nuns in the church; praying with their ceremony robes on, they looked so surreal in an eastern Turkey setting. Or may be, it was the spell of our guide İbrahim, a hot-looking clergyman who smiled timidly as he told us the story of ancient Syriacs. I really don't know... But whatever the reason, you would hold your breath too when you saw this monastery. It stood like a fortress over a contrasting view of wheat fields, olive trees, and vineyards. 

Golden illustrations on the altar wall

Mor Gabriel Monastery (Mor= Saint) was founded in 397 (A.D.) by two saints, Mor Simon and Mor Samuel, but it was named after Mor Gabriel because it had its golden times during his life. The main church was completed by the Byzantians in 512 and when finished, its ceiling was covered with golden illustrations of which none survived to our time. According to İbrahim, a golden and a silver grapevine hung from either side of the altar that allegedly represented the Sun and the Moon. I really think that Tolkien got the idea of Trees of Valinor -the Telperion (Silver Tree) and the Laurelin (Gold Tree)- from Mor Gabriel's monastery. And just like in Tolkien's tale of the Silmarillion where a jealous Melkor destroys the trees, a bloody Timurlane destroyed the two grapevines of Mor Gabriel in 1402. Luckily, some of the golden illustrations still exist in the walls of the altar, forcing your imagination as to how the arched ceiling looked like during 14th century. Here, listen to an afternoon prayer held in this fairy-tale monastery. 

Next: More about İbrahim and the monasteries...