Bird Paradise & Lake Manyas

In Farid ud-Din Attar’s ‘The Conference of the Birds’, the birds set out on a long and arduous journey to find their king, the Simurgh. Of the thousands of birds who cross the seven valleys, only thirty remain; and when they come into the Simurgh’s presence, they realize that the king they sought is none other than themselves. For in Persian, “si murg” means thirty birds… So if there were a real place where birds arrived at the end of their long journeys, where would it be?