Page 66 - DreamScapes Magazine | Spring/Summer 2026

excavations, making it one of the world’s most
dynamic research landscapes. At Çatalhöyük, there’s
a new visitor centre at this 9,000-year-old UNESCO
World Heritage Site. The Neolithic settlement is
where you’ll find what many consider the world’s
first city. Up to 10,000 people lived over 2,000 years
as farmers and craftspeople. Excavations have
revealed wall paintings, clay figurines (some of
female forms), and tightly packed mud-brick houses
entered by rooftop ladders. There were no streets.
Life unfolded above and within. Burials lay where
families lived and slept. Scholars debate the social
structure, but the site’s density and artistry suggest a
complex community negotiating belief and survival
on a stark Anatolian plain.
My days turn tactile. In a felt workshop, I learn
how nomadic Turkic tribes transformed wool from
fat-tailed sheep into weather-proof fabric once
prized by sultans. The craft endures. Even King
Charles III (then a prince) was presented with a tall
felt hat (sikke) by a master artisan, a small
diplomatic gesture spun from sheep’s fleece and
centuries of know-how. My own hands work the
fibres with soap and water, pressing and rolling. It
is humble alchemy.
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DREAMSCAPES SPRING/SUMMER 2026
In an ebru (paper marbling) studio, pigments
float atop a bath of thickened water. With a slender
stylus, I guide colour into swirling galaxies before
pressing paper to the surface. Each marbled sheet is
a meditation in motion.
The final sensory experience occurs at the Sema
ceremony. Part of the Şeb-i Arus commemoration,
the “wedding night” marks the death anniversary of
the mystic poet Rumi. Earlier, I paid respects at the
Mevlana Museum, where his sarcophagus rests
beneath a green-topped dome that seems to inhale
and exhale with the faithful who file past.
In Türkiye, the past is present. From the hiss of
steam in a centuries-old hammam to the stillness
beneath a Neolithic roof, from the spice-saturated
markets of İstanbul to the whirling dervishes of
Konya, the journey invites you to taste more
carefully, listen more closely, and look longer.
When my return flight lifts into the sky, I carry
the echo of the adhan at dawn and the soft
resistance of felt under pressure. Türkiye does not
merely show you its wonders it lets you feel them
with a generosity that lingers long after the wheels
leave the runway.
TRAVEL PLANNER
For travel information about Türkiye, visit
goturkiye.com