TRAVERSE Issue 37 - August 2023 | Page 132

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Hasankeyf is aimed to bring down the pride of Kurdish people through the destruction of their historical sites . Ten-thousand-year-old , Hasankeyf is a living history book that tells of troglodytes , Christians , Muslim dynasties . The ruins of a 15 th century bridge and the 12 th century minaret are only the most visible among 550 historical artifacts justifying the inclusion of the city in
UNESCO heritage .
It sounds like a wonderful place and indeed it should be , but its fate , sealed by now , heavily conditioned people ’ s life and the whole place ’ s mood . Almost all the five thousand inhabitants have been moved elsewhere and nobody of the few left would spend a pie for a city next to be flooded . The only active guest house , described as a wonderful stay in our guidebook , was by now a fleabag place , scruffy and excessively high priced for the dirty rooms facing a pool full of trout and mosquitoes . The picturesque view of restaurants with their tables along the shore reveals all their misery as soon as you get closer , everybody is trying to bring home the last earnings before the dam changes their lives forever . A heartbreakingly beautiful place
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