Camel Wrestling



I have been incredibly lax in my blogging since the summer. I promise I'll catch up but for now I'll start with last weekend's camel wrestling extravaganza and then go back and do some retroactive postings.

Our school semester is coming to an end and feeling the stress of marking finals and desperately wishing I had banned glitter from the term projects, we headed down to Selcuk for camel wrestling. Camel wrestling is a two century old tradition and the wrestling camels are literally born into the business (they must be from camel wrestling ancestry). Because of the enormous cost to train and keep these camels each one is worth about $25,000. Though the rules seem vague to the foreign onlooker, we were informed that a camel wins by making another camel scream, run away or fall over.

On Friday night, we arrived at the Nisanye house in Sirince and instantly knew it would be a fantastic weekend. We walked in the door and were greeted by a fireplace and a basket of wood. Upstairs there was a giant room with an even bigger platform bed. The bathroom was a miniature hammam decorated in marble. The next morning we were surprised to find a basket crammed full of breakfast items- eggs, olives, tomatoes, pomegranate, fresh fig jam, quince chutney and attached to our door in a cotton bag was fresh bread from the local bakery.

After a filling breakfast we spent some time exploring the town of Sirince. Sirince is an old Greek town on the mountainside overlooking the historical site of Ephesus. The landscape is reminiscent of Tuscany, but with it's Greek and Ottoman style houses is uniquely Turkish. We poked around all morning in old churches and the local market and then took the bus to Selcuk. Thinking we had already missed the camel wrestling parade we took our time strolling through the orange tree lined streets. Then, suddenly Allana and I caught a glimpse of a camel walking down the street and took off in a dead sprint to catch the parade—we were those crazy yabanci (foreign) ladies running after camels. Walking down the street were hundreds of camels decorated in their beaded, sequined, embroidered, taseled finest. Strutting beside their animals were very proud camel trainers who were trying to garner the crowds' support. Also, setting the scene were troupes of musicians who weaved in and out of the parade stopping by the spectators to play traditional Turkish music called zeybek—the only way to get them to leave is to dance or pay them. We followed the parade to the end and took the opportunity to get some close up shots of the gladiatorial camels. It was when we got close that we realized how massive these animals actually are; clearly they are bred for fighting.

Sunday morning was the big day. How to describe it? Well, the hotel owner put it best; "You will see dozens of grotesquely puffed-up he-camels and large crowds of dead-drunk provincial Turks having fun." Our expectations were set low at a raucous day of local flavor, however when we arrived at Pamucak beach we were almost immediately taken in by the festive atmosphere. Herded in with the hundreds of other male Turkish spectators, we followed the crowd toward the hillside. Camels were walking around everywhere and a cloud of delicious smelling smoke from BBQs haloed the “stadium”.

It’s hard to tell which was more fun, the actual wrestling or the celebratory attitude of the spectators. Soon we were swapping food with the locals and rooting for our favorite camels. And let me say we got the better end of the deal in the food swap—people were grilling whole fish, sausages, beef, lamb and chicken. There was dolma and salat, raki and fermented turnip juice (ugh),fresh fruit and, of course, the obligatory olives. I even ate some camel sausage, which was surprisingly delicious. Oh and no… the sausages aren’t made from the losers. I asked. We were almost embarrassed at our meager offerings of dried fruit, bread and cheese.

While the rest of us were eating and dancing, the antsy warriors waited to compete, literally foaming at the mouth, .The wrestling was incredible as these camels were unexpectedly limber. In many cases they pushed each other with their heads, but often one camel would put its head under the belly and between the front legs of the other camel and try to flip it! Because the trainers are very protective of their camels about 60% of the matches ended in a tie, but when a camel was actually knocked over it was quite impressive to see such a massive animal hit the ground. The camels are also incredibly strong; it would take about 20 men on either camel to separate them when they got in a deadlock.

Although we went down to Selcuk for a laugh, we left feeling like we got one of the most authentic Turkish experiences possible. I think I’ll have to put it on the calendar as an annual event!