posting something from January in March is just one of many signs that this blog is behind, struggling to catch up, stay relevant, stay interesting. well, here goes:
wandering in the deep wilderness of North-Eastern Anatolia sometime in the late 4th century two Athenian priests thought they saw the Virgin Mary in a cave. that cave happened to stand on a cliff looking over the Altındere Valley. through conquests, emperors, and sultans, Sümela monastery grew and was abandoned, and now it stands as an inspiring historical site. after 40 minutes of driving uphill alongside pine trees and mountains, this greets you on the road:
in the falling snow, we climbed from the summit up a slick path and the monastery appeared out of the snow and fog:
climbing further still, we reached the top and had a look inside. i began thinking about what life was like here, in the 4th century, and in the 5th, in the 12th and the 19th, each year of life here building or destroying the monastery, painting biblical frescos after one re-conquest and ripping the figures eyes out with the next. like most sites in Turkey, Sümela monastery is physical proof of the tradition and perseverance of mystic struggle.
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