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While wandering through Istanbul I stayed in a hotel in the Topkapi district, hard by the Theodosian Land Wall of Istanbul. This area is about three miles west of Sultanahmed , the heart of old Istanbul. The hotels out here are a lot cheaper than closer to the center, and the pace is a lot less frantic, especially on the quiet side street where I am staying. There are numerous small restaurants and tea shops in the immediate area if one cares not to roam, but it is only a fifteen or twenty minute ride on the metro to the Area of the Grand Bazaar and Sultanahmed , in case one wants to immerse oneself in the hubbub of the city. And of course Topkapi is a convenient starting point for wandering along the ancient Theodosian Land Wall of Istanbul.  As John Julius Norwich points out in Volume 1 of his magisterial three-volume history of the Byzantine Empire, Byzantium: The Early Centuries : It is one of the clichés of Constantinople [Istanbul] that it should, ideally, be approached by ...

In an earlier post I mentioned Ghujdawani (d.1179), the first of the Seven Khwajagan of the Bukhara Oasis . Al-Ghujdawani’s teacher was Abu Ya`qub Yusuf ibn Ayyab ibn Yusuf ibn al-Husayn al-Hamadani (to give his full name). Yusuf al-Hamadani was born in 1062 in a village near the city of Hamadan in what was then Khorasan, now Iran. At the age of eighteen he moved to Baghdad where he quickly attained the reputation as one of the leading scholars of his time . . . For more see Seven Saints of Bukhara: The Khwajagan, or Masters of Wisdom .  (click on photo for enlargement)

The Yekedeshik Cave Complex is located high above the east bank of Murghab River about fourteen miles north of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan border. “Yekedeshik” is supposedly an archaic Turkish word meaning “single orifice”. The name refers to the single entrance to entire complex. There are five floors to the complex, although only the top two are now open to the public. The entrance opens into the fourth floor. The fourth and fifth floor contain forty-four rooms, so it is probable that the entire complex has well over 100 rooms. The chambers were carved out of soft sandstone with what were apparently pick-like implements.  The really surprisingly thing about the complex is how little is know about who built it, for what purpose, and when. Almost everything said about the caves is speculation. Legends and tall tales abound of course. One legend maintains that the caves are not of human provenance at all, but were instead created by jinns , which according to Arab and Muslim mytho...

Mark your calendars: On August 26, 2032 a Astroid Over 1300 Feet In Diameter could slam into Planet Earth!  The Head Of NASA   revealed that the best way to handle a large asteroid heading for Earth . . . is to PRAY.  Charles Bolden told Congress that prayer was all the experts or anyone else could currently do about asteroids that may be on a collision course with the planet. NASA Head Charles F. Bolden: “Pray, People, Pray.” London and Las Vegas bookies are giving  63,000 to One Odds  of the astroid hitting Earth, which is about the same odds as the Pittsburgh Steelers winning the Super Bowl. To put this into perspective, Pint-Sized Bombshell Snooki  has 8 to 1 odds of winning the current Dancing With the Stars Competition .  The astroid, now cruising through the  Constellation of  Camelopardalis ,   could make a big splat if it does pound our much-beloved Azure Orb.  Think of it as another reason to sign up for ObamaCare.

Wandered by the Yekedeshik Cave Complex located 290 miles as the crow flies southeast of Ashgabat . To get there from Ashgabat you have to drive 230 miles to Baramaly, the nearest town to the ruins of ancient Merv, and then drive south 120 miles to Tagtabazar, the nearest town to the caves. The actual driving distance is well over 300 miles. From Baramaly the road follows roughly the valley of the Murghab River , which begins on a plateau located between the Band-i Turkestan, Gharjistan, and Paropamisus mountains in what is now Afghanistan. From its source the Murghab flows north approximately 510 miles before disappearing into the sands of the Kara Kum Desert. As we shall have ample opportunities to see, the Murghab Valley vies with Egypt and Mesopotamia as the home of one of the world’s oldest civilizations. South of Barmamaly a new highway is under construction and the temporary dirt roads are clogged with trucks, tankers, and buses bound for the natural gas processing plants which ...