I am writing to you today from Stonehenge, where Thomas Hardy's Tess of the Durbervilles was translated and which hosts the saddest scene of the movie. Tess (Nastassja Kinsky), a victim of strict Catholic principles, was executed between these magical pillars and said goodbye to the man she loved most by smiling and looking into his eyes.

The world's most famous ancient neolithic stone columns have fascinated people for thousands of years and will continue to captivate our imaginations until the mystery of the stones is solved. Like everyone else, I wander among these magnificent monoliths, looking for Tess's feelings among the neolithic replicas that I find more and more sophisticated...

The massive ancient stone pillars were perhaps built for sun worship. With the axis of the monuments pointing directly towards the sunrise, they are eerie and mesmerizing, as if part of a worship service. The nearly 3,000-year-old circle of ditches and pits, and the mossy stones that connect the bluish columns, have remained a strange mystery for more than 1,300 years...

Every inch of England is mysterious and magical to me. This is where Harry Potter, Charles Dickins, Oscar Wilde, Nelson Mandela, Sherlock Holmes, Churchill, Thomas More, Shakespeare lived or died. Freud escaped from the Nazi massacre, came to London and lived here until his death. After walking through the narrow London streets lined with black moss-like houses where Sherlock Holmes was surrounded, a uniformed Victorian policeman is waiting at the door of his house and a uniformed maid welcomes you. Upstairs, it's great fun to wander among the wax statues recreating some of Holmes' famous cases (including the villain Moriarty).

The Temple Church, a circular church built for the Knights Templar in the 12th century, is a translation of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" and features some great scenes with a great performance by Tom Hanks. On the floor of the church, figures depicting the knights seem to be lying side by side. The Knights Templar, who are thought to have been both priests and soldiers, who were used in the service of the Vatican during the crusades, went to Jerusalem and brought the so-called Grail (Holy Grail) (there are different rumors according to religious and scientific scholars), the bones of Jesus Christ, the original holy book, the bowl in which the blood used in his hanging was collected, and documents containing information about him. After a while, the king of France, Filippe Le Bel, issued a death warrant for all the knights, most of them were captured and slaughtered, some of them escaped and hid. Dan Brown told much of this in The Da Vinci Code and faced a great reaction from the Vatican. He later wrote Angels and Demons, which was an apology.
The thriller, starring the young Lord of the Rings actor Elijah Wood, follows the extraordinary adventures of Arthur Seldom, a famous professor at Oxford University, and his brilliant student Martin. Trying to solve mathematical symbols and push the limits of the mind, the two unknowingly fall into the middle of a murder story in "The Oxford Murders". Oxford may be a tiny city that can be visited on foot in a few hours, but like Cambridge, every centimeter of it is 1000 years old, so you get the feeling that you couldn't finish it if you stayed for weeks. The whole city consists of universities and every university has a church, chapel or cathedral. There are dozens of museums and libraries, all at least a thousand years old and all free of charge. It is not a university like we think it is, neither Oxford nor Cambrige University. Cambrige and Oxford, a city university, do not have a main component. Oxford University consists of 38 colleges and Cambrige consists of 31 colleges (think like faculties). I wander in the footsteps of Harry Potter and Martin in Oxford and Cambrige. Large courtyards, bridges connecting the colleges, the Bridge of Mathematics, the Bridge of Aeschylus, dozens of mysterious chapels and narrow passages. Harry Potter's Oxford and Cambrige, the city of Prince William, son of Kate Middleton and Princess Diana...

Speaking of Princess Diane, the footsteps of the princess, who died mysteriously at the age of 36, whose tragic life story has been the subject of poems, compositions, books and movies, and who was the darling of the British, are everywhere in London. I remember her embarrassed greeting to the public from the balcony of Buckingham Palace, I see the magnificent royal clothes exhibited in Kensington Palace, I wander around Kensington Street where she went out and walked around despite the royal opposition, I hang out in Beauchamp Place where she shopped. I didn't have some of the bad information about Diana and the royals that I know now, and I was very fond of Diana, who I thought was a commoner(!).

In 1981, even though there was only one TV channel, I watched the wedding ceremonies of Princess Diana and Prince Charles live for almost 5-6 hours and admired the princess and her long wedding dress. I walked around St. Paul's Cathedral over and over again and looked for Diana. Not many years later, 16 years later (1997), in contrast to her wedding, Westminster Abbey, where her funeral was held in silence, this monastery, a magnificent example of medieval architecture, was witnessing the funeral of the princess. The 11th century church, which hosted many coronation and royal ceremonies, was silent with Diana's departure.

As in Frank Sinatra's song "A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square", although it is impossible to hear a nightingale singing in central London today, the sounds of musicians making real music on every corner, in every square, in every subway resonate throughout London...

Mukaddes Pekin Başdil

Researcher-Author

Source: Denizli Haber