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National Geographic : 1969 Dec
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flavored aperitif. A cinema's poster pictured Turkish actors with big hats and six-guns in a kovboy filmi. A fire truck sprinkled dusty streets, scaring a squadron of pigeons. Tractors pulled red farm wagons filled with women laborers. Horses festooned with maallah-necklaces of blue beads to ward off the evil eye-munched grain from nose bags. A farmer's caravan moved past us: two small donkeys quick-stepping, heads down, followed by two tall camels of undu lating step and snobbish mien. They, like us, were loaded with bundles and headed home. Yankee enjoyed beautiful weather as north westerlies pushed us south and east around the Cilician promontory that bulges closest to Cyprus, a mere 50 miles to the south. Here during the 12th and 13th centuries deter mined bands of Christians established a small kingdom, one of the most remote from Christendom and one of the most embattled. Stout castles and massive churches still stud the rugged terrain. "Most Romantic Anchorage in the World" At Kizkalesi we anchored off an island dominated by the Maiden's Castle. The name derives from a legend that a Christian princess died here of grief after her father barred her marriage to a Moslem. The 12th century structure and a matching castle on shore loomed in the night. As a full moon Easygoing tempo of Iskenderun makes mighty events of the past seem remote indeed. Where cab horses clip-clop, the fiery steed Bucephalus in 333 B.C. bore a triumphant Alexander the Great, fresh from decisive victory over the Persians at Issus, 22 miles away. Here he established Alexandria ad 814
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