Mudbrick madness - Mari and Dura Europos
Day 5
Woke up to a delicious hotel breakfast (I’m becoming addicted to cherry jam), met our taxi driver in the lobby, and headed out for Mari. Drove through small villages and tent camps along the way. Chickens, sheep, goats, cows, a few camels, kids running around, kafiyah-ed men hanging out, shrouded women working, mudbrick enclosure walls and animal pens, and collections of palm fronds, sticks, and balls of dung and tabouns in the front courtyards….an ethnographical delight. Don’t think much has changed in the last millennium.
Arrived at Mari and bought tickets from the Bedouin caretaker. Noah shared his Cheetos with a couple kids his age. A car arrived with two guys (we later learned – we think – that they were our Mahabarrat, or secret police, Minders) who hung ou
t with the taxi driver, Mahmoud. Fully accounted for, we set of in a desolate landscape for a covered area of the site. The covering ‘protected’ a palace – a monumental mudbrick structure. It was FANTASTIC (I love mudbrick). Wandered through more of the site marveling at tombs, fired brick water channels, mudbrick tiles….sigh. Just fantastic. Noah found “a beautiful rock. Have you even seen a beautiful rock, Mama?” We stopped for a picnic atop a mudbrick mound (hopefully it was the dump pile) and marveled at some ants. Explaining to Noah the adage that ants are always the uninvited guests at picnics, Noah said, “We should make a sign – NO ANTS AT PICNIC
S OF BOYS AND GROWN UPS.” So we did. Wonder what language the ants at Mari read….Hopped in the cab and headed for Dura Europos. Wow. Huge wall with gates rising out of the desert. (While Mari is lower in elevation, Dura is on a step where it is more arid.) Went through the monumental 
gateway and were met with a series of buildings. Marched through the buildings – stopping in one to change a diaper – to the gate on the other side of the site. (We also stopped at the reconstructed house – now a museum – along the way. Neat stuff.) This wall and associated buildings overlook the Euphrates river. Stunning. Took in more houses (?) and one of the oldest churches before taking off and bidding adieu to our minders. I gather that the non-river gate was preserved because of a siege ramp built up against it. Noah crapped out on the ride back while Aaron and I admired the scenery…
Dinner at Leilati’s again…the cheeseburgers hit the spot. Stopped by our favorite shopkeeper’s for treats for the long bus ride tomorrow.
Woke up to a delicious hotel breakfast (I’m becoming addicted to cherry jam), met our taxi driver in the lobby, and headed out for Mari. Drove through small villages and tent camps along the way. Chickens, sheep, goats, cows, a few camels, kids running around, kafiyah-ed men hanging out, shrouded women working, mudbrick enclosure walls and animal pens, and collections of palm fronds, sticks, and balls of dung and tabouns in the front courtyards….an ethnographical delight. Don’t think much has changed in the last millennium.
Arrived at Mari and bought tickets from the Bedouin caretaker. Noah shared his Cheetos with a couple kids his age. A car arrived with two guys (we later learned – we think – that they were our Mahabarrat, or secret police, Minders) who hung ou
t with the taxi driver, Mahmoud. Fully accounted for, we set of in a desolate landscape for a covered area of the site. The covering ‘protected’ a palace – a monumental mudbrick structure. It was FANTASTIC (I love mudbrick). Wandered through more of the site marveling at tombs, fired brick water channels, mudbrick tiles….sigh. Just fantastic. Noah found “a beautiful rock. Have you even seen a beautiful rock, Mama?” We stopped for a picnic atop a mudbrick mound (hopefully it was the dump pile) and marveled at some ants. Explaining to Noah the adage that ants are always the uninvited guests at picnics, Noah said, “We should make a sign – NO ANTS AT PICNIC
S OF BOYS AND GROWN UPS.” So we did. Wonder what language the ants at Mari read….Hopped in the cab and headed for Dura Europos. Wow. Huge wall with gates rising out of the desert. (While Mari is lower in elevation, Dura is on a step where it is more arid.) Went through the monumental 
gateway and were met with a series of buildings. Marched through the buildings – stopping in one to change a diaper – to the gate on the other side of the site. (We also stopped at the reconstructed house – now a museum – along the way. Neat stuff.) This wall and associated buildings overlook the Euphrates river. Stunning. Took in more houses (?) and one of the oldest churches before taking off and bidding adieu to our minders. I gather that the non-river gate was preserved because of a siege ramp built up against it. Noah crapped out on the ride back while Aaron and I admired the scenery…Dinner at Leilati’s again…the cheeseburgers hit the spot. Stopped by our favorite shopkeeper’s for treats for the long bus ride tomorrow.
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