Mysterious monolith pops up near Turkish World Heritage site
Istanbul, Feb 8: Turkish authorities are investigating the appearance of a mysterious monolith in southeastern Turkey.
The metal block was found by a farmer Friday in Sanliurfa province with old Turkic script that reads “Look at the sky, see the moon.”
The monolith, 3 meters high (about 10 feet), was discovered near the UNESCO World Heritage site named Gobekli Tepe, which has megalithic structures dating to the 10th millennium B.C., thousands of years before Stonehenge.
Turkish media reported Sunday that gendarmes were looking through CCTV footage and investigating vehicles that may have transported the monolith.
Other mysterious monoliths have popped up and some have disappeared in numerous countries in recent months. (AP)
Turkish man strikes up 37-year friendship with swan
Edirne (Turkey), Feb 8: An unusual friendship between a Turkish man and a swan he rescued has endured for decades.
Retired postman Recep Mirzan found Garip, a female swan, 37 years ago in Turkey’s western Edirne province.
Mirzan and a group of friends were taking a shortcut in their car when they noticed the swan, with a broken wing, in an empty field.
Mirzan immediately took the swan in to protect her from predators and kept her in the car until that afternoon, when he was able to take the swan to his home.
Since then, Garip has lived on the man’s farm in the Karaagac region, bordering Greece.
Garip follows Mirzan whenever she is out of her pen, accompanying him when he is doing his chores around the farm or for his evening walks.
“Since I love animals, I said to myself that I should take her home instead of leaving her as prey to foxes,” Mirzan told The Associated Press, recounting the day he took Garip in.
“We got used to each other. We never separated.” Mirzan named the swan “Garip,” which translates as “bizarre” but is also used to describe those who are down on their luck.
After Garip’s broken wing healed, the swan stayed with Mirzan and also befriended the cats and dogs in the area. Garip spends most of her time out of her pen and has never tried to run away from Mirzan’s farmstead.
A widower with no children, the 63-year-old Mirzan says Garip has been loyal to him and chose to stay at his side.
Mirzan considers the swan his child. Living with Mirzan has obviously been beneficial for Garip.
According to the United Kingdom-based Swan Sanctuary, the average lifespan for a swan in the wild is 12 years.
It says that, in protected environments, they can live up to 30 years. (AP)