By Staff Writer, *The hidden treasure in Siirt's backyard Tillo* - Sunday's Zaman - Istanbul, TurkeySunday, December 20, 2009
Pretty little Tillo is to Siirt what Şirinçe is to Selçuk or Cumalıkızık to Bursa, namely a smaller, more architecturally cohesive settlement to which locals retreat during weekends to soak up the country air.
The big difference is, of course, that, Tillo, being near to Siirt, hardly sees a foreign visitor from one year to the next. Were it in the west of the country, it would be completely mobbed with coach parties, and boutique hotels would be opening on every street corner. That they're not is bad news for the local economy but good news for adventurous travelers who like to feel that they're one step ahead of the crowd.
Finding a way to get to Tillo is the first problem. There are old-fashioned dolmuş taxis as well as minibuses running between Siirt and Tillo, but enquire after their departure point in Siirt and you're likely to be rewarded with blank looks, in itself an indication of how far off the beaten track you've wandered. When at last you do manage to find transport, it will carry you up into the beautiful surrounding hill country and deposit you in the main square of a village that boasts even finer examples of the “cas” houses that are a feature of old Siirt, as well as the beautiful shrine of a pair of famous holy men.
Perhaps the more famous of these holy men was İbrahim Hakkı Erzurumi, who was actually born in 1703 in the village of Hasankale, now Pasinler, just east of Erzurum city. İbrahim and his father, Mullah Osman, came to Tillo to study under İsmail Fakirullah (1655-1734), a scientist and spiritual leader who belonged to a Sufi order called the Oveyssi that had its roots in Yemen.
Like his leader, İbrahim became a scholar adept not just in Islamic jurisprudence and theology but also in medicine and astrology. He's best known for a book called the “Marifetname” (Book of Gnosis), a sort of Whitaker's Almanac of the 18th century setting out everything that was known about subjects as diverse as anatomy, geography and philosophy. Later in life he moved to İstanbul, where he worked in the imperial library of Sultan Mahmud I. When he died in 1780, he was buried beside İsmail Fakirullah in the tomb he had had built for his mentor.
Today their shared shrine is housed inside a honey-colored modern building with a polygonal tower in a lovely graveyard full of picturesque Ottoman-era tombs where the silence is punctuated only by the sound of woodpeckers drumming on the trees. Their graves are protected by exquisitely carved wooden caskets with finials that look like those at the end of pews in medieval English churches, surely some of the most beautiful pieces of contemporary woodwork to be found in Turkey. Buried in the outer rooms of the mausoleum are some of their associates, whose resting places are recorded by much simpler stone markers.
Although the present shrine has a wonderful peacefulness about it, there was one great loss during the course of its construction. Until it was built in 1964, the first rays of the sun at the spring equinox (March 21) would bounce off a tower on a hillside outside the village and then shine straight through a window in the old mausoleum onto İsmail Fakirullah's headstone. Although this remarkable effect can no longer be appreciated, villagers will happily point you in the direction of a small museum housed inside a modern apartment block where you will be able to inspect diagrams showing how it worked. Here too you will be able to see early scientific instruments made by İbrahim Hakkı Erzurumi as well as learn more about his work (albeit only in Turkish).
Most of the weekend visitors who come to Tillo have their sights firmly set on visiting the shrine. However, non-Muslim visitors may be more interested in the village itself, a crumbling but evocative reminder that not so very long ago each region of Turkey boasted its own indigenous style of architecture. In Tillo, as in Siirt itself, that style of architecture consisted of mini tower-houses that looked as if they were made of mud brick but were in fact built of rubble faced with “cas,” a type of plaster made out of locally quarried gypsum. Most of the houses were two or three stories high with flat roofs and highly decorated window and doorframes. The gypsum itself was also adorned with incised patterns, some of them quite complex but most of them looking like the footprints left by the cloven hoof of a deer.
Just as in Siirt, the cas houses are slowly disintegrating under the pressure of rain and snow, and just as in Siirt, the result is that many have been abandoned, including some truly spectacular examples that if they were anywhere else in the country would now be undergoing restoration with an eye to turning them into hotels. Two such examples stand right at the top of the village near a modern mosque. The carvings around their doorways are extraordinarily rich, reminiscent indeed of carvings to be seen in the cathedrals of Western Europe. Inside, the walls are covered with simple but attractive abstract murals in vivid colors. Even the windows are inset with grilles each bar of which is topped off with a trident-like finial. The rooms are quite small, which might make conversion to hotels tricky, but it's a crying shame to see the incongruous Ankara-style houses that have been built right up against some whose owners understandably rate modern conveniences far above picturesqueness.
The cas houses on their own would be reason enough to visit Tillo, but their setting is made all the more attractive by the fact that most of the winding streets still retain their original cobblestones, big flat slabs of limestone that will no doubt be dug up any day soon and replaced with grim, grey concrete. But just as in Şirinçe, the hillside setting means that there are some lovely views to be had from the village, especially in summer when the surrounding orchards fill up with fruit. This is a part of the country that is well known for its juicy pomegranates as well as for some particularly plump pistachios good enough to give Gaziantep a run for its money.
It goes without saying that there's not much of a tourist infrastructure here: no hotels, no cafes, no restaurants serving local delicacies and certainly no handy souvenir shops. For all these luxuries, you will need to head back down into Siirt itself. For the time being, then, Tillo is a taste of the real rural life of a forgotten corner of southeastern Turkey. Go there soon before inevitable modernization comes upon it.
How to get there
Taxi-dolmuşes to Tillo leave from in front of the Büyük Hotel in Siirt; they leave only when full, although you can speed things up by paying for multiple spaces. On the return journey you may be able to find a minibus that will drop you closer to the city center. Regular buses connect Siirt with Diyarbakır and Şırnak.
Where to stay
There's no accommodation in Tillo itself. Siirt has several small and very basic hotels that would be unsuitable for lone women travelers. The one-starred hotel can be full, so advance reservation is advisable. Otel Erdef : 0484 223 1081
The big difference is, of course, that, Tillo, being near to Siirt, hardly sees a foreign visitor from one year to the next. Were it in the west of the country, it would be completely mobbed with coach parties, and boutique hotels would be opening on every street corner. That they're not is bad news for the local economy but good news for adventurous travelers who like to feel that they're one step ahead of the crowd.
Finding a way to get to Tillo is the first problem. There are old-fashioned dolmuş taxis as well as minibuses running between Siirt and Tillo, but enquire after their departure point in Siirt and you're likely to be rewarded with blank looks, in itself an indication of how far off the beaten track you've wandered. When at last you do manage to find transport, it will carry you up into the beautiful surrounding hill country and deposit you in the main square of a village that boasts even finer examples of the “cas” houses that are a feature of old Siirt, as well as the beautiful shrine of a pair of famous holy men.
Perhaps the more famous of these holy men was İbrahim Hakkı Erzurumi, who was actually born in 1703 in the village of Hasankale, now Pasinler, just east of Erzurum city. İbrahim and his father, Mullah Osman, came to Tillo to study under İsmail Fakirullah (1655-1734), a scientist and spiritual leader who belonged to a Sufi order called the Oveyssi that had its roots in Yemen.
Like his leader, İbrahim became a scholar adept not just in Islamic jurisprudence and theology but also in medicine and astrology. He's best known for a book called the “Marifetname” (Book of Gnosis), a sort of Whitaker's Almanac of the 18th century setting out everything that was known about subjects as diverse as anatomy, geography and philosophy. Later in life he moved to İstanbul, where he worked in the imperial library of Sultan Mahmud I. When he died in 1780, he was buried beside İsmail Fakirullah in the tomb he had had built for his mentor.
Today their shared shrine is housed inside a honey-colored modern building with a polygonal tower in a lovely graveyard full of picturesque Ottoman-era tombs where the silence is punctuated only by the sound of woodpeckers drumming on the trees. Their graves are protected by exquisitely carved wooden caskets with finials that look like those at the end of pews in medieval English churches, surely some of the most beautiful pieces of contemporary woodwork to be found in Turkey. Buried in the outer rooms of the mausoleum are some of their associates, whose resting places are recorded by much simpler stone markers.
Although the present shrine has a wonderful peacefulness about it, there was one great loss during the course of its construction. Until it was built in 1964, the first rays of the sun at the spring equinox (March 21) would bounce off a tower on a hillside outside the village and then shine straight through a window in the old mausoleum onto İsmail Fakirullah's headstone. Although this remarkable effect can no longer be appreciated, villagers will happily point you in the direction of a small museum housed inside a modern apartment block where you will be able to inspect diagrams showing how it worked. Here too you will be able to see early scientific instruments made by İbrahim Hakkı Erzurumi as well as learn more about his work (albeit only in Turkish).
Most of the weekend visitors who come to Tillo have their sights firmly set on visiting the shrine. However, non-Muslim visitors may be more interested in the village itself, a crumbling but evocative reminder that not so very long ago each region of Turkey boasted its own indigenous style of architecture. In Tillo, as in Siirt itself, that style of architecture consisted of mini tower-houses that looked as if they were made of mud brick but were in fact built of rubble faced with “cas,” a type of plaster made out of locally quarried gypsum. Most of the houses were two or three stories high with flat roofs and highly decorated window and doorframes. The gypsum itself was also adorned with incised patterns, some of them quite complex but most of them looking like the footprints left by the cloven hoof of a deer.
Just as in Siirt, the cas houses are slowly disintegrating under the pressure of rain and snow, and just as in Siirt, the result is that many have been abandoned, including some truly spectacular examples that if they were anywhere else in the country would now be undergoing restoration with an eye to turning them into hotels. Two such examples stand right at the top of the village near a modern mosque. The carvings around their doorways are extraordinarily rich, reminiscent indeed of carvings to be seen in the cathedrals of Western Europe. Inside, the walls are covered with simple but attractive abstract murals in vivid colors. Even the windows are inset with grilles each bar of which is topped off with a trident-like finial. The rooms are quite small, which might make conversion to hotels tricky, but it's a crying shame to see the incongruous Ankara-style houses that have been built right up against some whose owners understandably rate modern conveniences far above picturesqueness.
The cas houses on their own would be reason enough to visit Tillo, but their setting is made all the more attractive by the fact that most of the winding streets still retain their original cobblestones, big flat slabs of limestone that will no doubt be dug up any day soon and replaced with grim, grey concrete. But just as in Şirinçe, the hillside setting means that there are some lovely views to be had from the village, especially in summer when the surrounding orchards fill up with fruit. This is a part of the country that is well known for its juicy pomegranates as well as for some particularly plump pistachios good enough to give Gaziantep a run for its money.
It goes without saying that there's not much of a tourist infrastructure here: no hotels, no cafes, no restaurants serving local delicacies and certainly no handy souvenir shops. For all these luxuries, you will need to head back down into Siirt itself. For the time being, then, Tillo is a taste of the real rural life of a forgotten corner of southeastern Turkey. Go there soon before inevitable modernization comes upon it.
How to get there
Taxi-dolmuşes to Tillo leave from in front of the Büyük Hotel in Siirt; they leave only when full, although you can speed things up by paying for multiple spaces. On the return journey you may be able to find a minibus that will drop you closer to the city center. Regular buses connect Siirt with Diyarbakır and Şırnak.
Where to stay
There's no accommodation in Tillo itself. Siirt has several small and very basic hotels that would be unsuitable for lone women travelers. The one-starred hotel can be full, so advance reservation is advisable. Otel Erdef : 0484 223 1081
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