Archive for the ‘Trips’ Category

The Lost Secrets of Ottoman Cuisine
By Maud McInerney

On the last day of our Far Horizons trip, we visited the Church of St. Saviour in Chora, which is one of the most exquisite of all Byzantine churches. It is decorated with mosaics and frescoes from the century before the fall of Constantinople, depicting the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ. Scholars tend to see Italian influences in these lovely images; they aren’t stiff and stylized like so much Byzantine art, but instead are moving and personal, almost sentimental. My favorite is, perhaps, the mosaic showing the first steps of the Virgin Mary: she’s a tiny little girl (only six months old, according to tradition) but already very dignified and confident, walking all by herself away from her mother’s hands. It’s perfectly familiar—I have three friends with toddler babies at the moment—and yet wonderfully strange, set against a backdrop of the Holy Land as imagined by a 14th century Byzantine artist, all strange perspectives and garden walls.

Ottoman food turns out to be wonderfully strange as well. The Ottoman Empire, at its apogee, encompassed Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Syria and the Balkans as well as present day Turkey. The master chefs who catered to the whims of the rulers of this empire could thus draw on a wide range of ingredients and techniques. They were famous for their inventiveness and skill, and also for keeping their recipes secret, so that no lesser person might eat what the Sultan ate. Almost next door to St Saviour, in a beautiful green garden with high walls and trellises, there is a restaurant that specializes in rediscovering the lost recipes of the Ottoman chefs. They have re-invented dishes based upon cookbooks from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries discovered in remote archives, all listed in the menu with the century next to the name of the dish.

There we ate lamb cooked in an earthenware pot with dried apricots and coriander; grape leaves stuffed with minced meat and rice and sour cherries; chicken cooked in honey; squid stuffed with a filling of couscous and cinnamon; and we had tiny glasses of tamarind sherbet to drink (an Ottoman favorite, not like ice-cream at all but rather like very cold sweet fruit juice), along with glasses of cold white wine from Cappadocia. Everything was exotic and subtle and delicious, nothing like any cuisine I’ve ever tasted. I thought about those later Ottoman sultans, prisoners of their own viziers in the great palace of Topkapi, with their stables of gorgeous Arab horses, their harem full of beautiful women, their painted walls and their stunning jewels, their pleasure gardens and their chefs… decadent, perhaps, but not such a bad life.

Mustafa’s Onboard Kitchen

Our boat is a ninety-foot gület, two-masted and fairly broad beamed, designed for coastal sailing. There are eight cabins for guests, six forward and two aft, in addition to a bunk room right up in the prow of the ship for the crew and the captain’s cabin across from the galley. Inside, the ship is entirely wood paneled and has made to order Turkish carpets that announce its name: Arif Kaptan C, for the father of the present owner, Hussein. The present Captain is inscrutably friendly. Utgur, who is 21, is graceful, at least half-cat and apparently capable of teleportation, is the person you shout for whenever you need something (a kayak; a drink; to have the sails hoisted); and for twenty years, Mustafa has been the cook on this ship.

We are on board for nine days, and for almost every one of those days, Mustafa produces three meals, plus tea. Breakfast is cucumber and tomato and Turkish cheese and some kind of egg (scrambled or fried) and sublime peaches, skinned before they come to the table. Lunch is various; today, we had köfte, little Turkish meatballs beautifully spiced, roasted zucchini and eggplant, a huge green salad with tomatoes and lettuce and shreds of purple cabbage and lots of dill, and beautiful pasta, just lightly sauced with tomato and olive oil. Dinners are even more elaborate. We start with the mezes: esme, spicy tomato smoodge that you eat on bread, patliçan salat, which is garlicky smoky eggplant mash, cacik, like Greek tzatziki but with a mysterious green leafy thing in it instead of cucumber, and if we’re very lucky, also sigarete börek, long tubes of pastry filled with soft cheese, or the divine zucchini fritters. The challenge is not to go into food coma before the main course comes to the table. It’s usually quite simple, after all those varied entrées. One night, each one of us got a whole sea bream, caught fresh that day and then grilled over a tiny hibachi at the front of the ship. Or it might be roast chicken, or lamb chops and grilled vegetables. Dessert comes last: fresh fruit usually (cherries and apricots and melon) but sometimes also halvah, which I personally don’t care for, but which sends others into raptures.

In the photo, you can see how beautiful Mustafa’s meals are, and this is all the more remarkable as he has no formal training. What you can’t see is the size of his kitchen; it can’t possibly be more than 6 feet by 6 feet, and it’s often a day’s sail away from anything resembling a village shop let alone a supermarket, and yet out of it comes some of the most extraordinary food I’ve ever eaten.

Maybe I’ll miss Mustafa most of all; no one else has ever peeled my peaches for me.

Mustafa’a Zucchini Fritters Recipe

4 middle-sized zucchini, peeled
3 smallish onions
Grate the zucchini and the onion together. Then add two eggs and enough flour to make a stiff batter, along with 2 tsp of baking powder. I think he put in about a cup or so of flour, but since Mustafa (predictably) measures nothing but does it all by feel, it was hard to tell. Add 2 tsp of dried mint and about the same of red pepper and salt.
Shape this into patties and fry (deep frying isn’t necessary) in some fairly light oil (not olive oil—the taste would be too heavy) until they are golden.
I have had the chance to try this since getting back to France. Mine were not up to Mustafa’s standards, but they were pretty damn good. I served them to my nephew Tim and his girlfriend, and not a one was left over. I’ll work on perfecting my technique.

Great Pyramid on Giza Plateau

Far Horizons presents an extraordinary 17-day trip to Egypt that includes many highlights. We have made special arrangements to enter the Queen’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid, Seti I’s Tomb, Nefatari’s Burial Chamber, the Unas Temple at Sakkara, and the Red Pyramid—all closed to the public. We will meet with the excavation director at Elephantine Island, and hear about the Kharga Oasis Project from the archaeologist working there. At the Chicago House, a major center for Egyptian Studies, we will be hosted by the Director and join working archaeologists for cocktails and a tour of the incredible library. And finally, we will board a small vessel, the Eugènie, to cruise from Aswan to Abu Simbal, visiting rarely-seen Nubian sites along the way.

Click for more information on Majesty of Egypt

Bob Brier received his Ph.D from the University of North Carolina. He is not only one of the nation’s leading Egyptologists, but a brilliant lecturer and storyteller. He is professor of philosophy at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University and the author of several books including The Murder of Tutankhamen: A True Story (Berkley Books, 1998), The Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians (Greenwood Press, 1999) and The Secret of the Great Pyramid: How One Man’s Obsession Led to the Solution of Ancient Egypt’s Greatest Mystery (2008). Professor Brier has served as director of the “Egyptology Today” program of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and as host of the Learning Channel series, The Great Egyptians. He has twice been selected as a Fulbright Scholar, and has received Long Island University’s David Newton Award for Teaching Excellence in recognition of his achievements as a lecturer. He is a wonderful teacher with a special flair for evoking the distant past in ways that make it seem vividly present.

Patricia Remler is an author, photographer, and art historian. She was the Researcher for four important Learning Channel documentaries – the three-part Pyramids, Tombs, and Mummies, the six-part series The Great Egyptians, the one hour Napoleon’s Obsession: The Quest for Egypt, and the three-part series Unwrapped, The Mysterious World of Mummies. She is the author of Egyptian Mythology A – Z.

Click for more information on tours with Bob Brier

By Dr. Gary O. Rollefson
- Enthusiastic semi-resident, archaeologist, and fan of Jordan and its lovely people

Welcome to my world! It’s been mine as an archaeologist and part-time resident for 30 years, and I’d like you to share it with me. “My world” in Jordan includes majestic archaeological sites, but also includes the modern residents of Jordan, some of the warmest and most hospitable people I’ve ever known. I am constantly impressed with the sense of welcome that Jordanians offer, whether in a small grocery shop in a remote rural village or on the shaded streets of the major metropolises of the kingdom.

There is a glorious, silent majesty about the sheer 1,000-foot cliffs of red sandstone that constitute the walls of Wadi Rum, a stark canyon near Jordan’s southern border with Saudi Arabia, where Lawrence of Arabia first saw the potentials of the Great Arab Revolt against the Turkish overlords of a small but feisty territory during World War I. The initial battles of this conflict took place amid the mute witnesses of a sacred location dating back more than five thousand years, testified by rock art in the canyon walls to mark appeals to the gods for another year of safety and prosperity in the forbidding sands of a challenging desert landscape.

While Jordan is mostly desert, about one-seventh of the land is rich farmland that today continues to provide more food than the local population needs. The agricultural wealth is made clear by the remains of teeming cities constructed as early as the Neolithic period some 10,000 years ago. The world’s largest Neolithic town – ‘Ain Ghazal, near the modern capital city of Amman – was occupied by a people for whom ancestor veneration was the fundamental cornerstone of their spiritual life, for which the world’s oldest statues were produced.

The natural bounty of the countryside was attractive to outside groups who saw opportunity for political and financial gain. A battlefield for the competing armies of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Turkey dating back to the 14th century BC, Jordan underwent see-saw control by the armies of great civilizations, but always maintaining its own distinctive stamp on the foreign influences that inevitably altered the local fabric of art, architecture, and religion. Old Testament era tells (artificial mounded cities) dot the Jordan Valley, including Pella, and the highland plateaus. Splendid cities grew during Greek and especially Roman times, including Jerash, the best preserved Roman ruins outside of the Italian peninsula.

The list of Jordan’s riches, steeped in historical importance and austere beauty, goes on and on. I’d like to introduce you to “my people,” and to the impressive history (and prehistory) and thrilling landscapes of a land whose treasures are indeed impressive. Ask anyone who has visited Jordan before; they’ll give you resounding encouragement!

By Dr. Kyra Nourse

Far Horizon’s “Glorious Greece” trip couldn’t be more aptly named. While I could speak with enthusiasm and at length about any of the sites on the itinerary, I’ll restrain myself and focus on two of my personal favorites.

The first of these is Delphi. I have never seen a photo that can do this spectacular site justice. The sanctuary of Apollo was constructed on the steep slopes of Mt. Parnassos; to visitors, it seems to hang suspended over the gorge far below. The location alone is awe inspiring, and it takes no imagination at all to understand why the ancient Greeks felt here the presence of a god.

Beginning at least as early as the late 8th century BC, Greeks came to Delphi to consult Apollo’s oracle. By the middle of the 6th century BC, the oracle had developed an international reputation and was consulted even by foreign kings. Its fame is well reflected in its architectural remains, from Apollo’s temple to the theatre perched above it.

With its remarkable array of art and architecture, Delphi also epitomizes a Greek cultural paradox: Here the Greeks from different city-states and ethné demonstrated the cultural traits and ideals that made them all “Hellenes.” At the same time, the fierce competition that separated and distinguished Greek city-states was also played out at Delphi, not only in the athletic contests of the stadium, but in the grand treasury buildings and dedications set up by individual states along Delphi’s Sacred Way. The audacity of this display of one-up-manship is almost as breathtaking as the view.

While there is certainly more to be said about Delphi, I’ll turn now to another of my favorite sites: Vergina. The Hellenistic ruins above Vergina afford a pleasing view of the Aliakmon plain, but the truly spectacular sights at Vergina are under ground.

If you drive through the countryside in this region, you’re likely to spot strange artificial mounds rising up conspicuously above the flat surface of the plain. Such mounds, or tumuli, cover Macedonian tombs, often extremely elaborate in design. Not surprisingly, most were robbed of their grave goods long ago. At Vergina, a massive tumulus covered a cluster of tombs, and two of these were still intact when archaeologists excavated the site in the late 1970s.

Vergina is believed by many to be the ancient site of Aegae, and the Great Tumulus the location of the royal cemetery of the Argeadae: the family of Philip II and his son, Alexander the Great. Visitors can now enter the reconstructed “Great Tumulus,” which shelters the tombs and doubles as an on-site museum. In addition to viewing the tombs themselves, you can see the impressive collection of artifacts that were discovered in Tombs II and III, including golden funeral wreaths, delicate ivory carvings, ceremonial weapons, and silver vessels used to prepare and serve wine at ancient drinking parties. It is a sight that effectively evokes not only the culture and artistry, but also the wealth, power, and ruthless dynastic ambitions of the age that succeeded the Classical period.

By Professor Andy Goldman, study leader

For those of you who have ever wondered about Turkey, it can be a challenging place to describe. Friends have often asked me to do just that, to try and encapsulate my various experiences there, having lived in Ankara for over two years and having visited almost every summer since 1992. The true difficulty lies in not what to say, but where to start. The country is home to such a broad variety of ancient civilizations, such magnificent sites and monuments, such a welcoming and hospitable people, that I am never exactly sure where to begin. But once I do, like all of us who know and love the country, I find it can be very, very difficult to stop…

That said, a short story about why you might want to go. In 2006, my wife and I were honeymooning in the Antalya region, on the Mediterranean coastal plain of south-central Turkey, what was the ancient territory of Pamphylia. Borrowing a car from a friend’s brother, we headed up to a site that we’d never seen, the ancient city of Termessos. In recent years it has become a national park, but in ancient times it was a formidable city/citadel, one which Alexander the Great himself was unwilling to spend the time and energy to conquer. After a short but invigorating climb, we found ourselves on top of a mountain and nearly alone in a vast Greco-Roman metropolis. It was one of the most romantic places I’ve ever been. Most of the buildings, including a gorgeous theater, are still in place and largely intact, tucked amid the creeping vines and trees. We felt like 19th-century explorers as we wandered across the city, discovering the fading inscriptions, broken columns, ancient tombs, each turn of the winding pathways providing us with new and delightful vistas. Best of all was the complete absence of noise, of hawkers, of the modern world intruding upon our experience.

And, this experience awaits at many of Turkey’s well-preserved sites, including Sagalassos and Arykanda, two of the many inspiring sites to which I will be shepherding a group in August of this year. Few countries in the Mediterranean today can provide the average traveler with such an idyllic and unfettered experience. That such opportunities are still available in Turkey is just one of many reasons to go, not to mention why I personally will continue to travel there and why I will never cease to try and persuade others to do so…

By Elise Gochberg, Trip Participant 2007

By Heather Stoeckley

Lima is much more than just a one-night stand for travelers to Peru. Preferring to quickly move onto Cuzco and Machu Picchu, or even Iquitos, the gateway for Amazonian explorations, most people choose to bypass any city sight-seeing and use Lima simply as a necessary layover from their international flights.

What first struck me about Lima was its brightly colored houses and buildings, painted intentionally in order to contrast against the often foggy skyline. As a San Francisco native, I immediately felt at home with this aesthetic (and climate). I began my journey in the historic quarter, where remnants of the city’s colonial past are ever present, particularly as you walk through the streets and peer up at the wooden balconies that characterize its buildings. After touring the cathedral and the magnificent Convent of Santo Domingo, I moved on to Barranco, an artistic district on the coast with a distinctly bohemian vibe. A short walk will take you to El Puente de los Sospiros, the Bridge of Sighs, where you can sit sipping a pisco sour and observe the sun setting into the ocean. And, as the gastronomic center of the Americas, Lima offers a fascinating variety of dining experiences that will leave your taste buds dancing! Known for its variety and quality, Peruvian food reflects the many influences of different civilizations which have passed through its borders… and Lima is the best place to sample these culinary achievements.

My recommendation: don’t skip this center of commerce, culture, and history. A day or two spent exploring the city Pizarro called, “The City of Kings,” will leave you yearning to discover more!

A Journey through Mongolia, China, and Korea
Co-Sponsored by UCLA Extension

By Dr. E.C. Krupp, Director of the Griffith Observatory

by Stanley Guenter

This trip to the Maya area picks up where “Capital Cities of the Ancient Maya” leaves off. After visiting Palenque we explore a number of sites in the Rio Bec region of southern Campeche, where little-visited Maya ruins feature entrances built to resemble the mouths of gigantic serpents. The site of Calakmul is one of the largest Maya sites and was anciently the capital of the powerful Snake Kingdom, mortal enemy of the kings of Tikal. The site of Dzibanche is another large ruin that was the capital of the Snake Kingdom from approximately 450 to 600 A.D., before it moved to Calakmul. It was from this capital that Snake Kings, including Sky Witness and Scroll Serpent, set out to attack and defeat such distant enemies as Palenque and Tikal. Kohunlich is a nearby site where large stucco masks were saved from looters when the Mexican authorities secured the site in the 1970s.

Our drive north through the Mexican state of Quintana Roo takes us through the land of the Cruzob Maya, descendants of Maya who in the 19th century rebelled against centuries of mistreatment and who ruled this area independently until the beginning of the 20th century. The Postclassic site of Tulum is situated dramatically on a rocky rise above the turquoise waters of the Caribbean waters that have made the site world famous. Ek Balam has only recently been discovered and is of incomparable importance due to its phenomenal state of preservation. Chichen Itza, in the central part of the Northern Lowlands, was one of the last great Maya capitals and its structures reflect intimate connections with the Toltecs of Central Mexico. The famous Cenote of Sacrifice was once the scene of rituals that included tossing, not only gold and jade artifacts, but also people into the deep waters. Old tales tell of virgin sacrifices and, while the bones of the sacrificial victims have been recovered, modern archaeologists have not been able to verify their virginal status.

We finish off our visit to Yucatan with visits to Uxmal and Dzibilchaltun. Uxmal is one of the most beautiful Maya sites and its Puuc-style architecture has been described as the height of architectural beauty among the ancient Maya, an impressive accomplishment given that all the work was carried out with stone-age technology.

Merida is the capital of Yucatan and has been since colonial times. Even earlier it was the capital of the Postclassic kingdom of Tiho’ and hieroglyphic texts from Dzibilchaltun, an important site just north of modern Merida, reveals that it was the capital of the Tiho’ kingdom back in the Classic period. Merida was known as the “Paris of the West” a hundred years ago due to its French-inspired architecture that flowed from the enormous wealth generated by Yucatan’s henequen haciendas.

By Stanley Guenter

Over the last decade the site of Ek Balam has emerged as one of the great surprises in Maya archaeology. A relatively small site, although possessing sizeable mounds, excavations in Ek Balam’s Acropolis have revealed one of the best preserved stucco facades in Mesoamerica. Arranged around a doorway in the shape of a gigantic serpent’s mouth, nearly life-sized stucco figures were excavated in nearly pristine condition, having been carefully buried by the ancient Maya about 1200 years ago. The reason for the elaborate precautions taken by the builders to preserve this facade were revealed when archaeologists entered the inner chamber of this structure and found a royal tomb. Surrounded by ceramic vessels, once stocked with funerary offerings of food and drink for the deceased, lay the body of Ukit Kan Le’k Tok’. Inscriptions from across the site have now confirmed that he was both the first and the greatest king of Ek Balam, having come to the throne in 770 and dying around 800. During the thirty years of his reign Ek Balam became the greatest power in northeastern Yucatan, superseding Coba, the enormous site to the southeast. Many structures were built at Ek Balam during his reign, and Ukit Kan Le’k is even mentioned in the inscriptions of Ichmul, a site 25 km to the west.

A painted capstone from the room just inside the elaborately decorated facade that framed the entrance to his tomb inform us that the name of this structure was the Sak Xok Naah, that may read “White House of Reading”. Within his tomb many inscriptions named the dead king, and one remarkable find was a carved human femur, clutched in the hands of the deceased. A hieroglyphic inscription on this bone indicated that it was the bone of a man who was named Ukit Ahkan, possibly the father of Ukit Kan Le’k. There was a tradition amongst the ancient Maya of retrieving the bones of their ancestors to use in rituals designed to commune with the dead. The bone held by Ukit Kan Le’k in his tomb had one end filed down into a point, possibly to be used in bloodletting rites. Other objects buried with Ukit Kan Le’k included a necklace made out of small shells carved in the shape of skulls, as well as pearls and most remarkably, a small frog made out of gold. Gold is all but completely unknown from the Classic Maya world, and this piece was clearly an import from Panama given its style, indicating the extensive trade networks of which Ukit Kan Le’k was a part.

What may be the most interesting find in the tomb, however, was a painted capstone found above the burial. On it, Ukit Kan Le’k is portrayed in the guise of the Maize God, the deity of resurrection and rebirth who represented the cycle of life and death in the cornfield that was the center of traditional Maya life. This painting is unique, however, in portraying this king/god with a split upper lip. Osteological examination of the bones found in the tomb revealed that Ukit Kan Le’k had suffered from a bone disease on his maxillary area, suggesting that in life he would have indeed had an oddly shaped upper lip. While most Maya kings were portrayed in an idealized manner, the artists of Ek Balam saw it fit to portray their king as an individual, allowing us over a thousand years later a unique glimpse into the reality of life as a Maya king.