Portal to Antiquity Hasankeyf, Turkey
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TRAVEL Portal to Antiquity Hasankeyf, Turkey Joanne Leedom-Ackerman n the banks of the Tigris River, where Mongols, who sacked the city while the residents the brown water slowly winds through hid in caves. On a lucrative trading route in north- canyons and past lush green plains, sits ern Mesopotamia, Hasankeyf fell to the Ottomans OHasankeyf. Carved into the hills in the southeast- in the sixteenth century and was ruled by that ern section of Anatolia near the Iraqi and Syrian empire. Today this town by the Tigris is part of the borders, Hasankeyf may be the oldest continuous Kurdish-dominated region of Turkey. settlement on earth, according to archaeologists, For centuries Hasankeyf stood as a guard who date it back at least ten thousand years. The over the Anatolian Peninsula at the Gate of north- town of approximately three thousand residents ern Mesopotamia. However, today the town faces rises straight up into the limestone cliffs and its greatest threat, one that challenges its very boasts over four thousand caves. existence. The Turkish government, in partner- This ancient Mesopotamian city has spanned ship with a consortium from Germany, Switzer- nine civilizations. The Romans tread here and land, and Austria, plans to build a dam that will built a fortress to watch over their eastern prov- flood the area and bury the homes, the caves, and inces. Under the Byzantine Empire Hasankeyf the antiquity—more than three hundred medi- became a religious center, a bishopric for Chris- eval monuments and eighty-three archaeologi- DILMEN tians. When the Arabs conquered the city in 640 cal sites—of Hasankeyf under the waters of the AD, the new settlers built a bridge over the Tigris, Tigris. The Ilısu Hydroelectric Dam is scheduled NEVIT : no doubt facilitating the invasion in 1260 of the for construction fifty miles downstream near the PHOTO 58 ı World Literature Today border of Iraq and Syria. The flooding will create invaded, residents hid in this castle as well as in Turkey’s second largest reservoir and submerge the neighboring caves. The remains of the east and Hasankeyf up to the halfway mark of its fifteenth- west gates can be seen among the ruins. century minaret. It is estimated eighty additional In the nineteenth century the Kurdish chiefs villages and fifty- to sixty-thousand people will be lived in the castle high above the valley, where one displaced in the region as the waters spread over can now stand in the ruins, looking out the portals The villagers approximately 120 square miles. to the blue sky and the panoramic view of the roll- In ancient times the Assyrians named the ing green hills and countryside below. argue that town Castrum Kefa, “castle of the rock,” which Today the path to the town is dotted with craft the Arabs translated Hisn Kafyfa, “rock fortress.” stalls, where local artisans sell jewelry, rugs, bags, the dam is A legend recounted four hundred years ago by and textiles. Much of the younger generation has Kurdish writer Cheref-Ouddin, prince of Bitlis, left for the nearby cities of Batman or Diyarbakır, part of a plan in Marvels of the Kurdish Nation, tells of an Arab but children dressed in brightly colored clothing prisoner named Hasan who was sentenced to run over the hillsides or ride on donkeys and sell to obliterate death and imprisoned in the fortress high above the souvenirs of the artisans whose studios are in the Tigris. As a last request he asked to ride the caves. Kurdish culture. his horse one more time in the courtyard of the At the top of the stone steps, tourists can lunch fortress. Hasan rode faster and faster until sud- in the larger caves. Carpets and pictures cover the How can one denly he jumped with his horse over the fortress walls, and traditional Turkish meals of kebabs, wall and into the river 500 feet below. The horse rice, and vegetables are served. Diners lounge on move a cave didn’t survive, but Hasan escaped. The startled the carpets and cushions and old wooden couches witnesses peered over the wall and one of them and listen to Turkish music. The caves are cool in or a tomb called: “Hasan Keif?” (Hasan, how?). From that the summer heat and warm in the winter. Portal to Antiquity time on, the story goes, the town has been called In 1978 the Turkish government declared or structures Hasankeyf. Hasankeyf a site for conservation and thus legally Hasankeyf, Turkey Through the centuries citizens of Hasankeyf protected. This designation put a halt to the built into the have fallen under siege and had to find refuge dam project, which was originally conceived in literally inside their land by burrowing caves into the 1950s. However, in the 1980s and ’90s fight- rocks? they ask. Joanne Leedom-Ackerman the hillsides. These caves still exist. As one climbs ing erupted in the southeastern region between up the path from the river into the town and then the Turkish government and the Kurdish gue- Only if future farther up stone steps to the caves, antiquity is rilla group, the PKK. Ankara reversed itself and palpable. One passes the minaret from the El-rizk approved the hydroelectric dam. Opponents of generations mosque, built by the renowned Ayyubib sultan the dam project claim these events are linked. Suleiman; the visitor sees the fifteenth-century cir- The residents today are hoping for a miracu- don scuba gear cular Zeynelbey Tomb decorated with blue bricks lous escape equal to that of their namesake Hasan. in geometric patterns, then views the ruins of So far they have eluded their watery end. In will they be the small palace and the remains of the gates of 2001 the Ilısu Dam project was suspended and Hasankeyf Castle, built from the sand-colored then abandoned by its partners after international able to view stone that makes the whole town look as if it grew pressure, but new partners were found and the out of the cliffs. project resumed. Another stay of execution was the antiquities Hasankeyf Castle, built by the Byzantines in temporarily granted in December 2008 when the 363 AD, rises on the cliffs above the river. The stone insurers from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria of Hasankeyf from which it was hewn was extremely hard, thus insisted that the Turkish government had not con- it became known as “the Rock Castle,” one of the formed to World Bank standards on protecting the under four most secure in the eastern part of the Byzantine region’s inhabitants, environment, and cultural Empire. One can still see on its walls the original heritage. They gave the government 180 days to hundred feet of designs and the writing in the stone. Secret steps comply. An evaluation will be made after July of from the castle lead to the Tigris River, and secret this year. water. water passageways still exist through the rocks. Advocates of routing the waters elsewhere The castle was a religious center for approxi- or stopping the dam altogether are hopeful this DILMEN mately 330 years during the Byzantine Empire and last stay will save the town, but the Turkish NEVIT reconstructed in 1101–1231 by the Artuks, serving government already broke ground for the dam : as their capital. In 1260 AD when the Mongols in 2006 and has built a structure in the river. The PHOTO July – August 2009 ı 59 With a Long Breath The Turkish government insists that the Zaradachet Hajo hydroelectric dam is necessary to generate elec- tricity, water, jobs, and prosperity for the region, With a long breath one of the poorer areas of Turkey. The govern- and unwavering conviction ment says it plans to create a new town and a You became the stone cradle of humanity. cultural park as well as a water park on the edge In the light of the sun of the reservoir, where it will transfer some of the and the protection of the darkness archaeological treasures of Hasankeyf. It has said you bore children tirelessly – it will build new houses for villagers higher up Amed, Heskiv, Ninawa, the mountain. The villagers protest that the cost and Gilgamesh of these new homes far exceeds the compensation nurtured them they have been offered by the government. The into flowers of civilization. opposition further argues that the dam will only last fifty to seventy years and produce just 2 per- Now they want to steal the tongue of Amed cent of Turkey’s electric needs, and that most of and drown Heskiv in your belly the electricity generated will go to areas other than but your old power the Southeast. They argue that the dam is part of and your young fury a plan to obliterate Kurdish culture. How can one feed the resistance of your children. move a cave or a tomb or structures built into the How long is thy breath, rocks? they ask. Only if future generations don Tigris river, the cradle of humanity? scuba gear will they be able to view the antiquities of Hasankeyf under four hundred feet of water. The struggle to save Hasankeyf and the Note: Translated from Kurdish by the author. Amed is the old name of Diyarbakır region, which has its own ecosystem and rare (before Islamization). Heskiv is the old name of Hasankeyf (before Islamization); animals and birds, has taken a toll on inhabitants it means “concave” in Kurdish. Ninawa is the Arabic name for the biblical city of in the years since the project was first proposed. Nineveh in present-day Iraq. The population of the town has almost halved as residents have moved away or postponed invest- Zaradachet Hajo (b.