By: Judy Conrad
Posted: January 5, 2026
A faint band of mauve and pale pink light whispers its way across the pre-dawn Istanbul sky as the call to prayer pours from the minaret tower of the mosque. The voice of the muezzin is clear, beckoning. “God is Great. I bear witness that there is no god except the One God. I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of God. Hurry to the prayer. Hurry to salvation.” He sings these words in the old Turkic language of the eleventh-century Ottoman Empire.
Photo 1: Chruch of Sancta Sophia; Photo 2: Camel Wrangler
Our tour had arrived in Istanbul the day before, exhausted after twenty-four hours of traveling,
transferring planes, waiting, gathering luggage, then finally being bussed to the hotel here. I ate dinner with the tour group and went to bed at about seven, too tired to consider any other possibility. Now it is five am and I am wide awake. I dress quickly and go outside to hear the call better. In the still, crisp morning, more colors awaken the sky. I am filled with wonder.
One paragraph in the Arizona Republic travel section announced this “three-week photographer's tour of Turkey.” Turkey! How far from everything I've ever known. How wonderful would it be to experience it? And a photographer's tour? They can't rush you from place to place on a photographer's tour, right? I want to do this alone. I need to be off on my own for a while...no one's wife or mother, just me. The tour was April 24-May 15, 1997. I was appointed a roommate, so we both avoided paying a single supplement. Everything was arranged.
Photo 3: Fairy Chimneys of Cappadocia; Photo 4: Mount Nemrut
My roomie, Ann, was a little older than I—very pleasant and easy-going and a non-smoker, thank God! She, as did everyone else it seemed, owned a very expensive camera. Many of the tour members had several types of cameras slung over their shoulders, along with some huge lenses, many filters, small tripods, and other types of apparatus I knew nothing about. I hadn't given a moment's thought to the camera I would be bringing. Mine was a small point and shoot with a piece of plastic broken off the back. I had mended it with a wide band of black tape.
“So, Judy, that's the camera you're using?” I was asked by several of the group, once they knew me well enough to give me grief. It was apparent photography was not my main reason for being on the tour. There were only twenty of us, and everyone was excited to experience this part of the world—the cradle of civilization—with so many layers of history and changing cultures.
Photo 5: Library of Celsus; Photo 6: Ephesus
In Istanbul, we marveled at the sixth-century massive pink church of Sancta Sophia and the Topkapi Palace. Its treasury outshines most countries' crown jewels. The lost city of Troy has been excavated to reveal nine ancient cities, one on top of the other, going back to 3000 B.C. Troy has been famous since Homer mentioned it in The Illiad. We viewed the remnants of the Temple of Athena and the ruins at Pergamun, a great Hellenistic city. We traveled to Izmir, Sardis, and Ephesus, an unmatched archeological site with a chapter in the Bible...“Letter to the Ephesians”. In Cappadocia, we viewed a wildly different landscape, valleys filled with tall, ghostlike pinnacles of rock left over from the soft ash of an ancient volcano. The locals called them “fairy chimneys.”
Photo 7: Blue Mosque or Sultanahmet Camil; Photo 8: Fairy Chimneys of Cappadocia
I was glad I had gone to a great deal of trouble to learn a little of the language. In 1997, there was one small Berlitz book with Turkish words and phrases in the downtown Phoenix Library and one CD of the spoken word. I spent a great deal of time learning how to pronounce certain phrases correctly. It was difficult. I was proficient in Spanish and knew French and Italian fairly well, but those were Romance languages, with a Latin base. Turkish was a jumble of unrelatable new sounds I had to memorize.
In addition to the usual “please” and “thank you,” I also learned “I am very pleased to meet you,” “My name is...,” “This food is delicious,” and “What beautiful children!” That last one was just in case I wanted to ask permission to take a photo of some children. Ediz, our local tour guide, was genuinely happy I could say those few things and took pride in showing me off to the other guides when our tours coincided. He would call me over and state in Turkish, “Judy, I am happy to meet you.”
I would dutifully respond in Turkish, “I am very pleased to meet you.” The other guides would murmur appreciatively.
“And what is your name?” Ediz would prompt me.
“My name is Judy.” More smiles among the guides. Ediz would puff up.
This small skill became huge when we woke at 4:00 am for a day jeep trip up Mount Nemrut. We photographers had to catch the morning light, right? A bevy of jeeps awaited our tour group. Three of the group filled the back seat of our jeep and left the shot-gun seat next to our Kurdish driver for me. This guy was not a friendly type and spoke no English. He looked straight ahead, unsmilingly, while the three in the back chattered among themselves and ignored us. I was uncomfortable, wanting to be friendly but really having no way to do so until, traveling the winding road up the mountain, we passed a group of three schoolchildren. They were part of a field trip walking up the mountain. I gathered my courage and said, “Ne güzel çocuklar “ (“What beautiful children.”).
Photos 9 and 10: Children of Turkey
He looked at me, a little startled, and nodded. After our hours at the top with the amazing “residence of the gods” created by King Antiochos in 50 B.C.E., we returned to our jeep for the trip back down the mountain. This time our driver had a tape of Turkish music he played, which I very much enjoyed. I leaned forward to see the name of the singer and made a note of it so I could look for that artist later. Upon our arrival back at the inn, the driver took the tape out and gave it to me. A small dent in international relations because I had learned another's language—it felt good.
I have two huge albums of photos as a result of those three weeks traveling around Turkey and walking among remnants of some of the earliest civilizations. Our guide, Michele Burgess, was forever encouraging us to take more photos. She suggested we trade addresses so we could share relevant photos among ourselves after returning home. I sent her a photo I had taken of her dark head surrounded by three dark-headed Turkish boys, all of them bent forward looking at a Polaroid she had just taken of them. I thought it was cute. Well, after our trip we all received a newsletter from her, and that photo was on the front page. The accompanying article stated, “This year's winner of the photo contest to see who can take a decent picture of me is Judy Conrad. Be sure to submit your entry for next year's issue.”
Photo 11: Shepherds in Field; Photo 12: Faces of Turkey
I can't even imagine what all those real photographers, with all that real equipment, thought. I know it made me laugh out loud.
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Sakal ile kamil olsa kis, keçiye danisiriardi her isi. (If beards were a sign of wisdom,
then people would take counsel from goats.) Age does not always make one wise.
Photo Credits:
- Church of Sancta Sophia which dominates the area of the Hippodrome and was built by Emperor Justinian in the 6th century to be the greatest cathedral in all of Christendom. It was later converted to a mosque. In 1935, it became a museum which we visited.
- Camel Wrangler
- Fairy Chimneys of Cappadocia – on the high plateau of central Anatolia they are the result of a geologic process that began millions of years ago when volcanic eruptions rained ash across what would eventually become Turkey. That ash hardened into tuff, a porous rock, which was covered by a layer of basalt. As it wore down over time, it yielded the pillars we see today.
- Mount Nemrut is a massive tomb sanctuary built in the first century BCE by King Antiochus I of the Commagene Kingdom, a fusion of Greek and Persian cultures in southeastern Turkey. The site features colossal fallen heads of Aniochus and various gods, a testament to the kingdom’s religious and cultural diversity.
- Library of Celsus one of the largest libraries in antiquity, the Library of Celsus founded at the site of Ephesus on the western coast of Turkey was commissioned in 114 CE to commemorate the Roman consul and governor Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus. Both a mausoleum and a library, the building held around 12,000 scrolls, rivaling the libraries of Alexandria and Pergamum. The library was destroyed in 262, possibly during the Gothic invasion of the city. Today all that remains is a façade, elaborately decorated with carvings and statuary.
- Ephesus is a vital ancient Greek and Roman port city known for the Temple of Artemis, the Library of Celsus, and a large theater.
- Blue Mosque or Sultanahmet Camil
- Fairy Chimneys of Cappadocia
- Children of Turkey
- Children of Turkey
- Shepherds in field – I gave them the last of my Hershey kisses, much appreciated by everyone I met, especially the children
- Faces of Turkey
About the Author:
Judy Conrad, a longtime Phoenix resident, was a flutist/piccoloist with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra for almost 20 years. She then dedicated another 20 years as Artistic Director and flute faculty at Rosie’s House, https://rosieshouse.org/ a free music academy for children in Phoenix. The organization was founded on the belief that music education is a catalyst for changing a child's life, which she witnessed many times over in her years there.
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