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  Wednesday 2004-05-19 - Harran, Turkey

Beehives

Our first stop of the day is at Harran where there still are “beehive” houses: mud brick houses in the form of a beehive: the steep round roof allows warm air to rise up so air at ground level remains cooler. Unfortunately our visit is rather disappointing. The architectural aspect is interesting but there aren’t very many original beehive houses left and most families live in newer houses (the classical box model is not as cool!) and use the beehive houses only as stables.

The place is also obviously spoiled by tourism, with children running around trying to sell their handiwork but not taking no for an answer. There is a castle which is probably interesting in itself - but after the impressive castles we’ve already seen on our trip, Harran’s small castle doesn’t really pique our interest. We all agree that the planned 1.5 hours (originally even 2) is too long for a visit to this “museum” village; an hour is plenty, even if you want to have a look inside the crumbling castle.

posted: Friday 2004-05-21 19:45 UTC architecture, museums