Halime and the Stone Door
We had a wonderful opportunity to visit Halime from Halime’s Handcrafts while touring the city of Van in Turkey. Halime served us a wonderful home cooked meal of lahana sarması (lah-hahn-ah sar-mah-si)—cabbage rolls stuffed with rice. She shared with us her story and showed us her newest handiwork designs.
Along with her son, she was excited the whole visit to show us around their neighborhood. They kept mentioning a Taş Kapı (tahsh kah-pi), a stone door. Although I did not know what to expect from the special stone door, I was excited to see the views around their home. Their neighborhood is situated in the outskirts of the city and nestled up along a beautiful mountain range from which Lake Van is visible.
As the sun began to set over the horizon, we were ready to set out for our walk. We wandered our way through the neighborhood, greeted with smiles from kids playing in the street. It could not have been more than fifteen minutes before we reached a rocky path leading us up a hill. Lifting our eyes upward we were amazed by a massive stone with ancient script carved into the side of a rock in their neighborhood!
Taş Kapı is known as a Urartian king’s grave site dating back to the 9th century BC. The Urartu Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of Van, was a powerful empire in the ancient Near East from the 9th to 6th century BC when Van was conquered in 590 BC by the expanding Median Empire.
The Urartian script elaborates sacrifices that were made for the Urartian pantheon of gods. It is one the most informative archeological findings regarding the religious belief and practices of the Urartu people. The Stone Door is also known as the “Shepherds Gate” and the “Enlightened Gate.” There are many legends associated with this location. It was the belief of some that the god Haldi would shine a light beam from here which is where the title of “Enlightened Gate” originates. The legend that Halime and her son eagerly told us was of a shepherd girl (hence the name Shepherd’s Gate).
Once a upon a time, a shepherd girl was grazing her family’s flock when she fell along the rocks by the Stone Door. Once a year the door would open revealing a hidden treasure. It just so happened that this was the very day that the shepherd girl found herself by the door. The girl heard a loud noise, saw the door opening before her, and hurried in to collect as much treasure as she could carry. However, the door shut behind her before she could escape. Although thousands of sacrifices were made at the door for her release the only thing that her family could do was wait for the door to open the following year. One year later, when the door opened, her family found her standing there with arms full of gold.
As we climbed these very same rocks while trying to get a closer look at the door, I admit to falling a few times. However, I was greatly disappointed when I climbed up to the door and it did not open. I guess it was not the right day of the year…
Following the breathtaking views, including a cute goat, and a few photo ops we made our way back to Halime’s home, still trying to comprehend this 2800-year-old Urartian monument carved into the hill down the street.
To our friends in the West, Keep looking East!
Rebekah Harper
Rebekah loves claiming Birmingham, Alabama as her hometown, though she has learned that home can be anywhere. With half of her life spent in North Africa and Europe and the other half on the West Coast (USA), it can be said that she has grown adept at fitting in everywhere but belonging to nowhere. However, over the past couple of years Turkey has captivated her attention. She loves the adventure of exploring new places but even more so the people and stories she has come to cherish along the way.