The Wild East by Min Hogg with photographs by Manuel Citak
Home to the world's oldest settlements, land of biblical prophets - the Tigris and Euphrates basin is a fabled but forgotten frontier. In a thirty page celebration, Manuel Citak captures the splendour in photographs, while Min Hogg keeps a wry diary on her sortie into this hard-baked corner of Anatolia
The giant heads of Nemrut Dagi, once attached to enthroned figures, are the folly of the brief rule of the kingdom of Commagene. They were part of a vast mausoleum built on a remote mountain top by Antiochus I (64-38 BC) who was deposed by the Romans. Claiming descent from both Darius the Mede and Alexander the Great, he combined Greek and Persian deities in his pantheon. The eagle in the foreground was a temple guardian.
Balikli Gol, where Abraham broke his journey from Ur to Canaan. Legend has it that God created the pool to save Abraham when the Assyrian king MNemrud tried to kill him by fire. The fire turned into water and the kndling into carp. The beautiful colonnade by the side of the pool is part of the 18th century Ridvaniye Mosque.
In this part of Turkey on the border with Syria, people eke out a fragile existence and depend more and more on cash handouts from tourists. irrigation from the controversial dams to the north offers them hope of a better future. But will thew traditional wisdom behing these deceptively simple buildings survive?
For more on Turkley's magnificent southeast, see Beyond the Euphrates: the photographs of Cafer Turkmen in Cornucopia 30
And the incredible temples and sculputres of 9000BC THE BIRTH OF ART Cornucopia 26
Travel notes
Even a short expedition to southeast Turkey can be profoundly rewarding. An early flight from Istanbul can have you sipping a late breakfast tea in the stone courtyard of fianl›urfa’s restored Valilik, for instance. The complexities of the place are striking: on arrival you feel you’ve crossed the threshold of Arabia. Flights: Turkish Airlines flies daily to Diyarbakir, Gaziantep and Sanliurfa. Hotels: in Gaziantep stay at the five-star Tugcan Hotel (tel 90-342-220 4323, fax /220 3242). An attractive hotel in Sanliurfa is Urfa Valiligi Konukevi (tel 90-414 215 9377, fax /312 3368), listed in a useful directory to Turkey’s small hotels, The Little Hotel Book. Tours: travel agents Sea Song (in Turkey tel 90-212 292 8555; in the US toll-free 0800-480-9171) organise tailor-made tours of the area. Min Hogg travelled with VIP Turizm, tel 90-212 241 6514. Tours and car hire can be arranged locally through hotels.
The Monsignor and the Minister by Osman Streater
Osman Streater recounts a remarkable piece of unrecorded history: the wartime friendship between Monsignor Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII and his great-uncle Numan Menemencioglu, Turkey's foreign minister from 1942 to 1944.
Roncalli's greatest identifiable success was in saving 26,000 Jews from Hungary... As to Numan, his geatest known success was in saving all but a few of the 10,000 Jews of Turkish citizenship in Vichy France after the German occupation.
Top: Roncalli leads a procession at the French Embassy in Istanbul, 1943
Below: Numan Menemencioglu in 1922.
De Gaulle gave the Turks their splendid embassy in Paris when Menenencioglu was envoy to France. Cornucopia 30 for the turbulent history of this bulding.
At six foot four and 20 stone, Frederick Gustavus Burnaby was said to be the strongest man in Britain. The exploits of this maverick cavalry officer, explorer and erstwhile politician were the stuff of Victorian schoolboy fantasy. His memoirs of his travels in Turkey were best-sellers in their day and have seldom been out of print since. The conversations he enjoyed en route still have a freshness today that no successor has ever surpassed. David Barchard pays tribute.
Light years from New York by Maureen Freely with photographs by Carla Grissmann
American-born Carla Grissmann wrote Dinner of Herbs, her portrait of an isolated hamlet in central Anatolia, to assuage her loss, when she was forced to leave at a few days' notice. Thirty years later, she was persuaded to publish it at the moment her second adopted home, Afghanistan, was taken from her. She talks to Maureen Freely of her love of remote places and people. The photographs were taken during her stay in Turkey in 1969.
Soups for cool cooks words and photographs by Berrin Torolsan
Berrin Torolsan brings a taste of the Steppes into the urban kitchen with ten surefire, no-fuss recipes.
Recipes: Umaç Çorbasi Mince and Mint Soup Sehriye Corbasi Chicken Stock with Vermicelli Dugun Corbasi Wedding Soup Yarma Corbasi Wheat Grain Soup Balik Corbasi Tangy Fish Soup Kirmizi Mercimek Corbasi Red Lentil Soup Kuskonmaz Corbasi Cream of Asparagus Sebze Corbasi Vegetable Soup Domates Corbasi Tomato Soup Tarhana
For a complete list of Berrin Torolsan's cookery stories in Cornucopia, see our cookery index. Selected recipes are also available online: menus.
Raise a glass to Gallipoli by Kevin Gould with photographs by Berrin Torolsan
In the first of a series on the great wines of Turkey and its ancient dominions, Kevin Gould visits Gallipoli. A land of heroes from Homeric times to the First World War, the peninsula has also, for 3,000 years, prided itself on its wines. Now Sarafin, a new Turkish label, is proving itself a worthy successor.
By the light of the silvery moon by Roger Williams with photographs by Berrin Torolsan
The fabled Ottoman art of 'tel kakma', embroidering silks with precious metal threads, had vanished until an Izmir couple set out to revive it. Roger Williams is treated to a glittering display.
Also see Berrin Torolsan on the art of telkari (filigree) in Cornucopia 28
Mad about madder A profile of Robert Chenciner by Barnaby Rogerson with photographs by Simon Upton, styled by Min Hogg
The colour red is the undying passion of Robert Chenciner. Barnaby Rogerson catches up with this tireless collector and scholar while Min Hogg styles his treasure chest of textiles
