Sillyon 12

I first heard of Sillyon when we were on honeymoon. It was the summer of 2020 and COVID was raging all around the world. International travel was restricted and most of the hotels were closed. A family friend found a hotel for us to stay in Antalya and we decided to spend a couple of days there and then drive around Turkiye, staying where we could find a hotel and see as many historical sights as we could.

I have always been interested in history and anthropology, and growing up, my father toured me around the country many times, visiting all the major historically important human settlements. I was so excited to show my wife, who is American, the thousands of years of history present in our land. The plan was to start in the south, drive west, visit the Aegean settlements, then move to the north and end the honeymoon in the Black Sea region.

There are many wonders around Antalya. We started our days early and spent our day seeing as many natural and historical wonders as we can. But driving to and from these places, we always saw the brown sign that denotes historical sites in Turkey: Sillyon 12. Inevitably, we started joking about silly on 12. No travel guide was talking about this place so we shrugged it off and kept using it as an inside joke, until one day we finished our daily plan early and didn’t know what to do next. We decided to go see what was going on in Sillyon and figure out if there was anything silly.

We found out that Sillyon is on a steep mountaintop and is away from any modern human settlements. There was no visible road to the city, so we parked our car at the bottom of the hill that leads to the city and tried to find a path up. The climb was hard, and to be honest, I got a little bit scared that if the sun sets before we go back down, we might have a hard time finding a safe path. But I was newly married and since my wife wasn’t afraid, I shrugged the uneasiness off and climbed the rocky mountain.

It took us over an hour to reach the top and it was worth every drop of sweat we shed. The view was stunning. We could see miles and miles of greenery and farmland until everything turned blue. Moreover, most of the city walls and some of the structures were still intact.

It is surprising how well the city was preserved because the first written records about Sillyon date from 500 B.C. The city, which is believed to have been founded by people from Argos, was relatively unimportant for centuries but became famous for successfully defending against Alexander the Great. It is not surprising since the climb to the city is steep and its thick city walls stand guard even today.

The city became important under Roman rule and was the beginning of the road that connected southern Anatolia to Constantinople. The city stood as an important fortress until 1207, when the Seljuks conquered the region. Nobody knows why, but the city was stranded in the late 13th century. I suspect that, being nomadic riders, Turks didn’t want to live in that mountain settlement and they also didn’t want a stronghold of people within their land as well. So, probably, people living there were forced to move to towns by the seaside.

When I visit places, I usually try my best to be present and capture the experience in my memory, but I thought that this was probably the last time we would see Sillyon in person, so I took many pictures. I have hundreds of pictures from that visit and I have gone through them for my previous painting, which is a portrait of my wife.

Going through those pictures made me think about the difference between Americans and Turks. As Turks, we have been part of many empires that rose and fell, and in our collective memory, we know that power and rule are cyclical. We live in the same lands where legendary leaders, emperors, and prophets lived and traveled. Most of those historical figures who were giants in their time are largely forgotten today and we learn their names only when we visit the ruins of their might. That makes us Turks aware of the ephemeral nature of existence and humbles us in many ways.

We have many sayings that remind us that even the greatest leaders of our history, people who were the most important, richest, and most powerful humans alive in their times, died like everybody else, and they didn’t bring anything with them to the other side. We usually reiterate those sayings to remind people to be nice to each other, because even when individuals die, society continues, and society keeps the memory of these people alive if they were outstanding members.

The U.S.A., on the other hand, has such a shallow history and because of that, most of the historical landmarks are intact. Moreover, individual success transfers to families and there are rich families around who owe their comfort to their close ancestors. I think this makes Americans value individualism and individual success above everything.

This shallow history also makes America think and react in certain ways. To my eyes, these ways sometimes look like a smart teenager’s egotistical tantrums. This young and powerful country is vibrant, has a lot of potential and thinks that anything is possible. But like many young people, this country dismisses the value and importance of tradition. Moreover, this country tends to underestimate how history affects our day-to-day lives, especially when it comes to diplomacy.

When everything goes well, this tendencies of America is great. America acts like a successful start-up in many ways and bullies other major powers into obedience. America is a great competitor. If there is a competition, America is capable of acing it. But I worry that America is not ready for the global challenges ahead. Because our challenges are not about competition anymore.

The global challenges ahead requires collaboration amongst all. The global challenges ahead require sewing different nations together into a common quilt of humanity to cover our future. America’s internal struggles and its position in ongoing global crises make me worry about the future of humanity.

I usually paint about the things that make me think or worry, sometimes symbolically, sometimes literally. This time I decided to take things symbolically and paint the ruins of a glorious city that stood against the greatest dictator of his time, Alexander the Great, because the glory of standing against the greatest dictator of our recent history might not mean much in the near future.