A small detour

En route we passed the site of the Manzanar Japanese internment camp. Very sad history, and definitely worth visiting if you are in the Death Valley area.

The camp is divided into blocks. Not much remains of many of them, although there are 

still bits and pieces visible, as well as a large visitor center and museum. 

One of the recreated barracks. 

The cemetery at Manzanar, with a memorial to those who died there.

A (Very Small) Road Trip

I wanted to get out and see a bit of California before I take off for the East Coast, so Ryan and I hopped in the car late one night and took off for points north. We drove through gold mining country and the Death Valley area on our way towards a ghost town and Yosemite.

Ryan tries some Death Valley black cherry soda. This stuff was amazing. 

The towns we passed we gloriously kitschy, and really embrace the touristy old west feel. Love it.

Back in Los Angeles...

...and thrilled to return to American (and Indian, Thai, Japanese, and Mexican) food. Yum yum. I've been riding around town trying to get last minute things done before heading out of town. Here are some around town photos as I soak up a bit of southern California leisure time. 

 Diner, attack!

 Oooh, I found the home of the Golden Globes folks. 

A view of the valley from the top of Topanga Canyon. Click for the full sized image.

Goodbye, Turkey!

The season has wrapped up, and I'm back in the States, so here are some parting shots from my time at Tayinat.

Story time.

Setting up for a special improvised Chinese food dinner.

Lucy gets to stay up late for the occasion. 

Delicious fried haloumi on my last day. Nothing like fried cheese to send you off in style.

Goodbye, Turkey! Its been fun! 

Lion!

It came time to take the lion out of the ground and send it to the Antakya museum. This is not simple with a large stone statue, so they brought in a large truck to do the job. The whole things attracted a rather large crowd, both on site and at the museum. Here is the press release, and some of the Turkish news coverage with video.  

Waiting to lift the lion.

Attaching the straps. 

The crowd, waiting for the lifting to take place.

He's up!

Secured with sandbags on the truck.

Lifting it back up to place it in the museum courtyard.

Someone had notified the press, so there was a gang of reporters there. 

Mixed in with the reporters are also some very pushy tourists.

Jen hides on the upper level to get pictures of the impromptu 

press conference taking place.

Tell Tour

For one of our days off, we went on the customary tour of tells in the area. Our first stop was Zincirli, an excavation run by the Oriental Institute.

Here we get a tour from the director of the site. 

We stopped for lunch, and look, another wedding!

Next was Tilmen Hoyuk, which did not appear to be expecting visitors. It is ostensibly 

an archaeological park, but they seem to be working on the entrance.

The grand stairway at Tilmen Hoyuk.

Watch out where you step. 

The views from the site are rather spectacular.

A very Turkish motorcycle. 

The last site we visited was the Yesemek quarry and sculpture workshop. Positioned on a hill beneath a 

large basalt outcrop are many partially carved stone lions, sphinxes and weird bear-men.  

This was potentially the source of stone for the lion featured in the last post.

A small herd of donkeys roaming the park.

The sculptures are in various states of completion. Very interesting to see the 

stages of production, especially in light of our lion. 

And then one day...

...they found this.