religion

Living History While Traveling in Trabzon Turkey

August 1, 2013 By Danny

It about three years ago when we found ourselves traveling through Turkey during Ramadan. Turkey itself is a wonderful place to travel but what we found difficult was that as we headed further east, to the more religious parts of the country, we encountered the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. During the holiday, Muslims traditionally don’t eat during the day and instead pig out at night. Trying to be sensitive, and challenged by what food options were available to us, we tried to do the same which left us hungry during the day and awake at night as our busses made frequent food stops.

This past week we read an article in The Economist detailing how a Byzantine Monastary was being used as a Mosque to celebrate Ramadan. The article took me back to that time on the trip, travlling through that very city during this same very holiday. Although we didn’t visit this specific site, The Hagia Sophia of Trabzon, we were passing through during Ramadan and did visit another Byzantine Monastery, the Sumela Monastery. The site was itself quite beautiful and, as a tourist site, made a nice reprieve for us from the restrictions of traveling during Ramadan. Reading the Economist article I am left to wonder if it may to find a day when its own purpose is changed to another religion. This is something that happens all the time, especially in the Middle East, but I just can’t help to wonder what the future holds for sites such as this.

I intend to offer no opinion regarding the cultural and religious politics of that region of Turkey, but instead just want to offer a few photos from the Sumela Monastary

Exploring Goreme and Capadoccia

June 27, 2012 By Jillian

Goreme is probably best known as the city from where to explore Capadoccia’s famous rock formations, but there’s actually a lot more to see in and around Goreme than just interesting rock formations. After reading this post, it may be time to look for some last minute flights and go for a long weekend.

The rock is the most unique aspect of the region. Hardened lava, the rock is relatively easy to carve and became the most popular building material in the region. Instead of building up, the local people built in and down. That’s right; they dug into the rock to create expansive cities, monasteries and churches. Monolithic buildings (made from one rock, also called rock hewn) are rather unusual in the world, and there are only a handful of examples of ancient monolithic architecture. We were fortunate enough to see monolithic churches in Lalibela, Ethiopia and in Goreme, Turkey and the city of Petra in Jordan.

The rock hewn churches in Goreme are unique mostly because of the incredible painting and decoration that remains on their walls. They are considered to be some of the best examples of post-iconoclastic Byzantine painting in the world. More than 1,000 churches have been found in the area, some with complete Byzantine wall-paintings, while others, even after restoration are still severely chipped, showing signs of older paintings underneath.

If you go to Goreme:

Take a trip out to see the rock formations or better yet take an air balloon ride at dawn. Then head out to see the underground cities (you can rent a car relatively inexpensively in Goreme or take a tour). The Goreme Open Air Museum, where most of the churches are congregated is a short walk from town. We rented mountain bikes in Goreme and took to the foot paths and canyons in the area, eventually having to hike our bikes out of the canyon in an unpleasant uphill scramble.

Photo: Notre Dame

December 21, 2011 By Danny

Notre-Dame is perhaps second only to the Eiffel tower when you think iconic images of Paris. A n Catholic Cathedral, it is still considered as one of the best and finest examples of the Gothic architecture both in Europe. Completed in 1345, the Cathedral is incredibly large, 420 feet (128 meters) and 226 feet (69 meters) wide.

What makes Notre-Dame so famous, besides its age and the incredible stain glass windows are the flying buttresses. Initially, the cathedral wasn’t designed to have these iconic supports. Built up higher than planned, they needed some way to hold up the walls and thus entered the flying buttresses.

The rose window, pictured below, is one of the most beautiful examples of stained glass in a Gothic church. At the time labyrinths or circles for worshipers to follow on the floor were very popular. Walking along the path helped worshipers enter a meditative mood for prayer. Although no one knows why circular windows were popular at the time, given the difficulty in building them, we can guess it may have had something to do with the meditative state the kaleidoscope of colors brings to the viewer!

To see more of our favorite photos from around the world check out our travel photo page. Let us know your favorites and we’ll include them in our photo of the day series.

IF YOU GO: Don’t miss out to see the five bells of Notre-Dame by just relaxing in nearby Paris apartments. Enjoy your stay and relish your memories.

Photo Credit: Flickr user martie1swart under a creative commons license.

Photo: Golden Roof

November 15, 2011 By Jillian

We had wanted to travel to Tibet very, very badly. By the time we arrived in China we realized that it would be very difficult to do, if even possible. Merely having a Chinese visa is not enough to go to Tibet, there is an additional process which is largely political. Instead, we chose to explore the regions surrounding Tibet which are still ethnically Tibetan even if they are not located in Tibet proper.

It was when we took a hike around the Labrang Monastery that we took this picture. The clouds seemed to open up just right to allow a rather interesting bit of sunlight onto this gold roof.

IF YOU GO: The Labrang Monastery quite a significant location for Tibetans and you will be able to get an authentically Tibetan experience. The lands around Tibet are best accessed through Chengdu or Lanzhou. These two cities have a large array of train, bus and air connections and from here you can find transport into the foothills of the Himalaya.

To see more of our favorite photos from around the world check out our travel photo page. Let us know your favorites and we’ll include them in our photo of the day series.

Photo: A Spiritual Moment

October 7, 2011 By Danny

Armenia is a small country who doesn’t get along well with its neighbors. Somehow we found ourselves inside and found a whole lot of reason to spend a few days with virtually no other westerners around. We were couchsurfers for a few nights in Yerevan and during the day we got out of town to see the [pictured] Geghard Monastery as well as the Garni Temple.
Before getting to Yerevan we had stopped in Vanadzor to see some other monasteries. Having already seen those, Geghard was on some level “just another” monastery. That being said though, it was interesting to see how much better the condition was at Geghard than it had been at the Vanadzor monasteries. This was largely due to its location carved out of the surrounding cliff side. It was a beautiful place and one worth visiting. The most exciting part of the day for however, was our encounter with a few friendly Iranians!

To see more of our favorite photos from around the world check out our travel photo page. Let us know your favorites and we’ll include them in our photo of the day series.

IF YOU GO: The Geghard Monastery and the Garni Temple are both accessible from Yerevan without much trouble. Yerevan is an incredibly pedestrian friendly city and really very easy to navigate. Like nearby Tbilisi it has loads of art and historical artifacts but I think these are much more accessible in Yerevan than Tbilisi.

Living History While Traveling in Trabzon Turkey

Exploring Goreme and Capadoccia

If you go to Goreme:

Photo: Notre Dame

Photo: Golden Roof

Photo: A Spiritual Moment

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