Virtual Class: Kerrin Meis – Exploring Eastern Turkey: Art, Culture, and Politics (via Zoom)

Travelers to Turkey (actual and virtual) miss the real Turkey. In this class, participants will (virtually) tour through: Ankara, home of the award-winning Archaeological Museum; the Hittite sites of Yazilkaya and Bozakoy with their history-revealing sculpture; Trabzon, home of the Hagia Sophia Church with its priceless Byzantine frescoes and the precariously perched Monastery of Sumela; Erzurum’s distinctive Mosque and Madrasa; the ghostly remains of the church of Ani and monasteries hugging the Armenian border; the mind-blowing palace of Ishak Pasha with its conglomeration of architectural styles; Akdamar on Lake Van, home of the 10th-century Cathedral of the Holy Cross with astonishing and amusing relief sculpture; Mardin, the golden city on Syria’s border—an architecture student’s paradise; captivating Diyarbakir, the unofficial capital of Kurdistan, with its Roman walls, intriguing bazaar, and fascinating Ulu Mosque; Nemrut Dag, home of the monolithic sculptures and tomb of the megalomaniac ruler Antiochus I; Gobekli Tepe, the most important archaeological site extant with finds from 11000 BC; Gazientep with the world’s largest and most spectacular collection of Roman mosaics from the sunken city of Zeugma. The “problems” with the Kurds and the Armenian genocide will be addressed.

Hayirli yolculuklar!

Kerrin Meis taught art history at SFSU for ten years and has led study tours in Europe. Her Book Passage classes have been favorites for years.