Middle East - Anthony Ham [16]
* * *
Above the Fairy Chimneys
Morning! For the first time in my life, I was happy to get up at 5am. I was taking a balloon flight over Cappadocia’s unique landscape of fairy chimneys (rock formations). With 10 other passengers, I clambered into the basket and took a deep breath of crisp country air as we left the ground crew far below.
The valleys housing the chimneys looked as remarkable, if not as snigger-inducing, as the often-phallic formations; the wavy tuff (compressed volcanic ash) resembled a mound of wobbly blancmange. With the balloon’s bulbous shadow falling on the curvy cliff faces, it was a symphony of surreal shapes.
Some 28 balloons fly most mornings and the multicoloured craft dotted the blue sky. The pilot was able to control the balloon’s height to within a few centimetres, allowing us to descend into a valley to pinch some breakfast from an apricot tree in a secret garden. Around us, the rock was riddled with pigeon houses, traditionally used to collect the birds’ droppings for fertilising the fields. As we used the katabatic currents of cool air to surf down the valleys, or rose on a warm anabatic wind, the only sound was the flame shooting into the balloon.
* * *
Former Lonely Planet author Tom Brosnahan’s memoir, Turkey: Bright Sun, Strong Tea, begins high above the Atlantic Ocean, as the US writer-to-be flies to Turkey at the end of the ‘Summer of Love’, to work for the Peace Corps in İzmir.
* * *
Leaving the fairy chimneys, we climbed almost 1000m and admired Erciyes Dağı (Mt Erciyes), which formed Cappadocia when it erupted. I had to pinch myself to check I hadn’t overslept: moving effortlessly through the air above those flowing valleys was just like dreaming.
James Bainbridge
History, Politics &
Foreign Affairs
* * *
CRADLE OF CIVILISATION
BIRTH OF EMPIRE
HERE COME THE GREEKS
ROMAN MIDDLE EAST
THE COMING OF ISLAM
EARLY ISLAM
THE CRUSADES & THEIR AFTERMATH
THE RISE OF THE OTTOMAN TURKS
LIFE UNDER THE OTTOMANS
EUROPE & THE OTTOMAN DECLINE
COLONIAL MIDDLE EAST
ISRAEL’S INDEPENDENCE
ARAB (DIS)UNITY
NEW FORCES OF ARAB RESISTANCE
ARAB-ISRAELI WARS
PEACE & REVOLUTION
BLOODY AFTERMATH
THE FALL, RISE & FALL OF HOPE
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE
* * *
The Middle East is history, home to a roll-call of some of the most important landmarks in human history. Mesopotamia (now Iraq) was the undisputed cradle of civilisation. Damascus (Syria), Aleppo (Syria), Byblos (Lebanon), Jericho (Israel and the Palestinian Territories) and Erbil (Iraq) all stake compelling claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth. And it was here in the Middle East that the three great monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – were born. Fast forward to the present and the great issues of the day – oil, religious coexistence, terrorism and conflicts over land – find their most compelling expression in the Middle East. It remains as true as it has for thousands of years that what happens here ripples out across the world and will shape what happens next in world history.
* * *
Five out of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were within the boundaries of the modern Middle East: the Temple of Artemis (Turkey), the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (Turkey), the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (Iraq), Pharos of Alexandria (Egypt) and the Pyramids of Giza (Egypt).
* * *
This section sketches out the broadest sweeps of Middle Eastern history – for further details see the more-specific history sections in the individual country chapters throughout this book.
CRADLE OF CIVILISATION
The first human beings to walk the earth did just that: they walked. In their endless search for sustenance and shelter, they roamed the earth, hunting, foraging plants for food and erecting makeshift shelters as they went. The world’s first