![26-DSC_0160](https://i0.wp.com/thevanishingpoint.world/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/26-DSC_0160.jpg?resize=692%2C460)
On the way to Urfa, we detoured to examine carved stones that date back millennia. Why do we treasure ruins? “…he had dug very deep and found the place where a man had drawn the picture of a reindeer. But he would dig a good deal deeper before he found a place where a reindeer had drawn a picture of a man.”
![27-DSC_0164](https://i0.wp.com/thevanishingpoint.world/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/27-DSC_0164.jpg?resize=692%2C460)
An olive tree! Dr. G claims that those with no taste for olives need only eat six in a row to develop one.
![28-DSC_0169](https://i0.wp.com/thevanishingpoint.world/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/28-DSC_0169.jpg?resize=692%2C460)
We encountered this donkey outside the mosque I described in an earlier post. Beasts of burden, indeed
![29-DSC_0174](https://i0.wp.com/thevanishingpoint.world/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/29-DSC_0174.jpg?resize=692%2C460)
Local legend swears this stream sprung forth miraculously to save Abraham from a fatal fall. When he angered his neighbors by decrying their idols, they attempted to cast him off a cliff into flames, but water received him instead
![30-DSC_0180](https://i0.wp.com/thevanishingpoint.world/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/30-DSC_0180.jpg?resize=692%2C460)
The waters provide a natural oasis in the summer. Locals call the fish “prophets” and forbid anyone to hunt them
![35-DSC_0227](https://i0.wp.com/thevanishingpoint.world/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/35-DSC_0227.jpg?resize=682%2C1024)
I opted for the Turks’ apple tea, which one of my companions has dismissed as “glorified cider” — but then, to borrow a phrase from another companion, doesn’t glorified mean better?