Showing posts with label teqe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teqe. Show all posts

Thursday, November 27, 2014

The Shrine of Abbas Ali

[caption id="attachment_2361" align="alignnone" width="660"]Shrine of Abbas ibn Ali Shrine of Abbas ibn Ali[/caption]

This is the top of Mount Tomorr, the Partisan's Peak, the Shrine of Abbas Ibn Ali. The shrine has a tomb inside but Abbas wasn't buried there. He is actually buried at that ground where he fell from his horse in Karbalā, Iraq. The tomb is covered by gifts, clothes and money. It is said that the money that gets collected up here and down at the holy ground (look my previous posts), is transported via helicopter (needs citation, I have no source besides word of mouth). I suppose it goes to the Bektashis Community but I don't have further info on how it is spent. Never heard them financing anything but then again, never heard them living la vida loca either.


The weather is clear, the air is cold, I guess some 5-10 degrees Celsius. The people are not wearing heavy clothes because down the mountain is quite hot. They just visit the shrine for a couple of minutes.




[caption id="attachment_2359" align="alignnone" width="660"]Abbas ibn Ali Abbas ibn Ali[/caption]

Here is the statue of Abbas ibn Ali, on his horse and with two children (the other one is behind the horse's head). The statue's size is lifelike. The sculptor must have been on acid I guess. look them eyes :D The statue is also seen on the far left of the next photo.

[caption id="attachment_2360" align="alignnone" width="660"]Praying Praying[/caption]

The people here are burning candles and praying for their loved ones, dead or alive. Although Albanians don't pray much on their dead, it isn't our custom. We pray for health and money (Albanian: Shnet e Pare).

As you can see, the parking place is not a parking actually. The road ends here and cars are parked on both sides of the road. When you step out of the car, if anyone approaches you to ask for money for parking, don't pay. You can give money if you want someone to look after your car not to get scratched (accidentally) or blocked by other cars (due to small space) but this is entirely up to you. There might be beggars as well, I wonder how they get up here. Perhaps they collect enough money to pay the ride which is fairly expensive.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

On the way to the summit

[caption id="attachment_2354" align="alignnone" width="660"]To the top To the top[/caption]

The driver came on time and we took the road to the summit. The good news is that the car can drive up to the top. The bad news is that the road is not entirely as good as you can see in this photo. It is also very steep sometimes and you have to be extra careful not to slip back. It has happened before and the last case was 2 days ago. The people ended up with major injuries but alive fortunately.


The green structure seen on the top is a small room in round form. It has a round yard and it is the highest peak of mount Tomorr, standing at 2,416 m. In Albanian we call it "Cuka e Partizanit" which means Partisan's Peak.




[caption id="attachment_2353" align="alignnone" width="660"]Vertical Clouds Vertical Clouds[/caption]

While you drive it feels like flying, except the good shake from the rocky road. On one side you have a clear blue sky and you can even see the Adriatic sea if clear enough. On the other hand there are lower mountains and hills as seen on this photo.




[caption id="attachment_2356" align="alignnone" width="660"]On the edge On the edge[/caption]

This part feels like you are on the edge of a boiling pot, some sort of cloud factory.

[caption id="attachment_2355" align="alignnone" width="660"]Cloud Factory Cloud Factory[/caption]