pigiragamigitleger megezagar degeğigil

The story started in my room in 2014 in Ankara, Turkey. I was researching about social hierarchy in ancient age, slavery, pyramids and some “exotic” fantasies (as in western ufo abductions and conspiracy theories) for my second solo exhibition. My mentor rolled his eyes at the cliche subject but I continued anyway. In my research, I had actually discovered two interesting pyramids, unrelated to the famous Mayan or Egyptian pyramids, and relatively unknown to many.

One was the Bosnian Pyramid which is considered controversial in the field of archeology. “Direct study of the site by geologists, archeologists, and other scientists have demonstrated that the hills are natural formations known as flatirons and that there is no evidence that they were shaped by human construction. Many scholars have noted that the claims have been used for serious ideological, political and economic gains by various factions in Bosnia.” In my opinion, this is a fascinating pyramid and if it was made by nature it would be more incredible than human-made.

The other is a small pyramid, located in the Arizona desert, dedicated to Hadji Ali whose name was Americanized as “Hi Jolly”. Naomi Gingold details Hi Jolly's origin and history in a (link: https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-05-12/one-americas-first-syrian-immigrants-helped-conquer-west-camels text: article) for PRI. She writes that “Hadji Ali was an Ottoman subject of Syrian and Greek parentage, and in 1856 became one of the first camel drivers ever hired by the US Army.” In 1934, the town of Quartzsite, Arizona, built a monument for Ali in their pioneer graveyard. The monument features a pyramid with a camel on top, and the plaque lists it as “the last camp of Hi Jolly.”

Five years after I had finished the piece, I made an unexpected pilgrimage to the Hi Jolly pyramid. As circumstances had it, I ended up in Arizona, driving through the desert with Christie, Sam, and Aidan to visit the last camp of Hi Jolly, the camel driver. For many people, it is just a story from a long time ago but the modest pyramid of Hadji Ali from Syria tells us about an untold history between the Middle East and the US.