It was stifling at the Temple when I visited last Thursday, and necessitated copious amounts of water replenishment to be carried, wrtes Glenn Maffia. Though, as this was the first opportunity to visit since the ‘craft festival’ finished, I wasn’t going to miss the chance.

I was surprised to see a number of stalls still peddling their wares, but a bar owner informed me these were just stragglers trying to eke out a few extra lira from the scant tourists strolling around. One of the things that dissuaded me from visiting the site during the festival was the fear of being surrounded by an unusually large number of people in these ‘pandemic’ days.

I was pleased I waited for the negligible numbers never intimidated me in the slightest. I invested 60TL for a new Museum Card and had a conversation with the staff at the entrance booth. Naturally, I asked if the German archaeologists had any plans of returning this year. They both answered in unison, and similar smiling glee, “No, now Turkish archaeologists”.

Please do not get me wrong, Helga Bumke the Director of Excavations, certainly knows her stuff and has made many incredible and significant finds which have pushed back our knowledge of this magnificent site. I would never belittle her accomplishments. It was, and still is, her reticence to relay that information into the public domain which was so gallingly frustrating, in my opinion.

Unfortunately, the guys at the entrance booth could not give me the name of the new Turkish Director of Excavations, but I shall soon discover that. I merely hope they will be a little more lucid and generous in informing the public.

On a slightly prosaic note, it was enjoyable to be able to stroll around the southeast section of the Temple once again. The mystery of the swamp and the issue of the flooding resolved. The topsoil of this area still evidences the inundation, as under the unforgiving sun it has cracked into those familiar polygonal shapes that tell the tale of a fast-drying area once underwater.

I’m not sure what the pond life will do now, but it shall probably return to the old rhythm of life when it bursts into activity during the rainy season.