This, as they will tell you, is the real deal -- Maraş dondurması, or ice cream as originally made in the southeastern city of Kahramanmaraş.Since Kahramanmaraş sits east of Adana you might think it rather a long way to go just for an ice cream, and in truth first impressions of the city don't do a great deal to dispel that feeling. On the surface Maraş (the “kahraman” is an addition to its name, which we'll come to later) looks like a solidly concrete-built modern conurbation, its high street dominated by a business center that looks like an outsize, elongated Rubik's cube. But first impressions can be deceptive, and this is certainly one of those occasions since Maraş turns out to have a well-hidden old quarter where restoration is suddenly all the rage.
So to the name, but before that some history. It's thought that Maraş was originally the site of an Assyrian town called Marasi before becoming the capital of a late Hittite kingdom. That settlement was destroyed by the Assyrian king Sargon II in the eighth century B.C., and Maraş doesn't reappear in the records again until the first century A.D. when the site at the foot of Ahir Dağı (Stable Mountain) crops up as the Roman town of Germaniceia. Its location at the junction between Europe and the Middle East ensured that the it then see-sawed back and forth in ownership between the Byzantines and the Arabs before finally falling to the emperor Nicephorus Phocas in 962 and then staying in Byzantine hands through much of the 11th century.
But as the threat from the Arabs ebbed, so that from the Selçuk Turks flowed, and soon what is now Maraş was overrun with Armenians fleeing in the face of their advance. Soon it was the center of a mini-kingdom established by a man called Philaretes. This kingdom eventually absorbed Malatya, Edessa (Şanlıurfa) and Antakya before being overthrown by the Selçuks. Even then poor old Maraş could not be allowed to rest in peace. Instead, the Crusaders grabbed it and returned it to the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenos. Eventually, it was absorbed into the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia with its capital at Sis (modern Kozan). Then came the Mameluks and the Mongols, and finally, in 1516, the Ottomans under Sultan Selim I.
At last Maraş was able to settle down to a couple of centuries of stability that came to an end in 1832 when it became a fiefdom briefly of the Egyptian İbrahim Paşa. In the chaos following World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire it fell first to the British and then to the French. But by then Maraş had learnt its lesson, and its citizens put up such stout resistance to the foreign occupiers that the epithet “kahraman (heroic)” was subsequently added to its name.
With so much complicated history behind it, it seems a little odd at first to find little evidence of the past in the modern streets. The thing to do, though, is to head straight for the statue that commemorates the Sütçü İmam incident when a local imam attempted to defend the honor of local women against forces occupying the city in 1920. Nearby is the Ulu Cami (Great Mosque) at the foot of a hill, which bears the remains of a Byzantine castle rebuilt in Ottoman times. Dive into the back streets around here to discover the old Maraş that is initially so conspicuous by its absence.
The Ulu Cami dates back to 1502, which means that it just predates the Ottoman period. Its most interesting feature is its minaret, which is topped off with a little cap like a cut-down version of the witch's hat on top of İstanbul's Galata Tower. This is just the most obvious of a set of mosques -- the Nur, the Şekerli, the Arasa, the Boğaskezen and the Hatuniye -- with minarets designed in just the same way and that link Maraş architecturally to Syria. Just across the street stands the small Taş Medrese, a medieval Quranic school. The area between the mosque and the madrasah is currently being repaved, and once the work is completed the whole area should be much more inviting.
Cutting uphill beside the mosque you'll come to Maraş' secretive old quarter that is filled with crumbling Ottoman houses, most of them partially obscured by 20th-century breezeblock and concrete additions. Keep walking and you will eventually stumble upon the Dedeoğlu Konağı, which is being completely restored. Right beside the Hatuniye Cami you will also spot an absolutely magnificent house whose ground floor is so solidly built from stone as to resemble a fortress but whose upper wooden storey boasts a glorious curving balcony overlooking the mosque.
This is a part of town where life proceeds at a slow and traditional pace. Across the road from the Hatuniye Cami you will find the local pigeon-fanciers' shop where birds ranging in price from TL 15 to TL 45 are decked out in cute little earrings and anklets just like their better-known cousins in Urfa. Down by the Ulu Cami men in colorful costumes stroll around with large metal containers strapped to their backs and wearing heavy metal belts studded with containers for glasses just like the sherbet sellers around the Süleymaniye Cami in İstanbul. But where the sherbet sellers have their eyes firmly fixed on the tourist dollar, here in Maraş it's the locals who make up the enthusiastic clientele for these purveyors of meyan kökü, a tart drink made from the root of a tree that is certainly a very acquired taste despite claims that it's a natural Coca-Cola.
It won't be long before you hear the tap-tap-tapping that will lead you into the old bazaar where men still make a living beating out copper and tin alongside others who fashion elaborate modern sandıks (dowry boxes) and yemeniliks (headscarf boxes) from walnut. This is a great place to shop for all things Turkish and non-touristy, and while you make your way around you will also be able to snap up the odd local snack such as a piece of sweetened katmer, a type of flat bread that is vaguely reminiscent of an Indian paratha.
Then, of course, there's the ice cream. For many years it was Yaşar on Trabzon Caddesi that held the monopoly on sales of dövme dondurması (beaten ice cream), a confection made from the milk of sheep that had feasted on the orchids and wild flowers of Ahir Dağı and that was so thick that it needed to be eaten with a knife and fork. Photographs on the wall still show the rich and famous being treated to this delicacy, but times have moved on, and every other shop seems to be getting in on the act now, even selling the ice cream in “hediye (present)” packets said to be good for 72 hours in transit. Failing that, you can always head for the nearest branch of Mado where ice cream straight from a factory in Maraş will be brought to your table without you having to make the arduous journey to the city at all.
WHERE TO STAY
Hotel Belli. Tel: 0344-223 4900
Ramada Hotel. Tel: 0344-211 1010
Yimpaş Hotel. Tel: 0344-224 0000
HOW TO GET THERE
There are frequent minibuses from Osmaniye and Gaziantep to Kahramanmaraş and less frequent buses to Adıyaman for Kahta and Nemrut Dağı.
