Traveling Through Turkey and Israel – Photos

Traveling through Turkey and Israel in December 2008, I managed to take roughly 1500 photos with my brand new Canon G10. The new camera was great, and the wide angle 28mm lens, ND filter, and full manual control were great to have in the field. I started the trip with 8gb and 2gb memory cards, and, shooting on JPEG fine, managed to start filling up the 8gb card way too early in the trip. Although I hate to do it, I actually did edit photos while I was traveling. In the end, I ended up with about 1200 photos. Out of those, I’ve edited them down to the top 100 or so. These photos I feel best represent the trip, and should give a good feel of the varying environments and sites of both Turkey and Israel.

I also took about 45 minutes of video, which I’m in the process of editing down to a presentable reel.

Faces carved into the rock above St. Peters church in Antakya

An orange vendor in Harran

Sketching and sailing up the Euphrates river

Inside the Roman Tunnels in Samandagi

Broken Turkish Pottery

Looking out onto the Euphrates.

Sunday night dinner at Kirk’s House

Having tea on the banks of the Euphrates with locals

Sunset in Samandagi

Looking off into the mountains from Antakya

Doerta cooking up a delicious German dinner.

Us with our Turkish friends in Yesemek

Street feeling in Kilis

Sundown in Yesemek, Turkey

Roman Tunnels in Samandagi

Stephanie and I inside the cave in Antakya

St. Peters hidden Catholic church in Antakya – built into a natural cave

Driving through the mountains near the Med

Me, Steph and Kirk standing on ruined pilars at St. Simeon

Surveying the dramatic scenery as we drive to Bierecheck, in the canyons carved by the Euphrates

Roof of the Aya Sophia

Getting Sahlep in Antakya

Steph looking at photos with a local kid in Harran

Our sketchy hotel in Sanliurfa

Steph standing on the beach

Arriving in Sanliurfa

Looking into the cut from the Roman Tunnels in Samandagi

Driving at night back to Antakya

Beehive houses in Harran

Driving west, then north out of Antakya

Me, Steph and Kirk about to split up in Istanbul

Candle lanterns at the market in Istanbul

Goats in Harran

A chef distributing pestashio on to baklava at Chadas in Gaziantep

Hassan, a local resident

Taxsim Square, Istanbul

The cave restaurant in Sanliurfa

Buying clementines in Antakya

Fruitstand in Istanbul

Green spices at the market in Antakya

Street food in Istanbul

Our dusk tour of the Hittite rock garden in Yesemek

Catholic church courtyard in Antakya

Early morning walk to go to the Istanbul airport.

Looking off into Syria, on the border between Turkey and Syria

Finding our hotel room

Freighter ships on the Bosphorus

Researching for our next day’s adventures in our hotel room in Antakya

Pegasus Airlines

Street food in Adana

Turkish Delight

Me driving through flood waters in Samandag

Medusa Head in the Cistern

Riding the dolmush through Belen, Tureky

Kirk negotiation for homegrown tobacco in Sanliurfa

Dried Eggplant shells in Antakya

Steph and the Euphrates river

Sunset in Samandagi

The inside of the church in the cave

Juggling oranges on a street side fruit stand.

Talking to the hotel staff in Adana

Dinner boat on the Bosphorus

Fishermen in Istanbul

Steph in the doorway of the Armenian Church

Ataturk in Adana

The Hittite rock musieum in Yesemek

Small town on the side of the Euphrates. Their mosque was flooded when the damn was build.

Kirk looking at the surviving arched cieling of the castle ruins at Kasaba

Looking out to the horizon from the mountains in Vaikifle

Dilapidated houses in Adana

Olive vendors on the corner in Gaziantep

Local schoolkids clamoring to say hello to us in Kilis

Getting a concensus on directions

A backhoe coming down Kirk’s street in Istanbul

Kirk and Steph checking the guidebooks in Adana

Blizzard conditions landing back in Istanbul

Local kid holding a lamb in Antakya. On this mountainside we met a shepard tending to hish flock. This kid hiked with us for a bit up onto the side of the mountain.