Notes
Synopsis
Comments on the earthquake
Ankara
Ayvalik
Pergamum
Assos
Selçuk
Priene
Ephesos
Miletos
Didyma
Pamukkale
Afrodisias
Back to Ankara
Thanks to Tammy for organizing our photos. If you like this,
you should see her album!
Thanks to Christine and Doug for being
great traveling companions for us and helping us plan and execute a
great trip.
Thanks to Diane for loaning me her scanner, and
watching Cassandra while I digitized these photos.
Fixed some bad links and made a few small revisions.
This is a self-contained summary of our trip to Turkey in the summer of 1999. For those who do not want to read the whole thing, I will summarize the main points quickly.
Tammy and I had a great time traveling with Christine and Doug across the northern Aegean coast and some inland portions. We mostly focused on archeological sites with frequent interludes at the beach. Our path was pretty straightforward. We flew in and out of Ankara. We traveled to the coast, visited many coastal sites, traveled inland to Pamukkale and then returned to Ankara. Turkish students tend to learn English as their second language. In general, many Turks speak a little English, but it was helpful to know some Turkish. The Turks are an incredibly friendly and outgoing people. They were very patient and supportive of our marginal Turkish. The food in Turkey is excellent and not very expensive. Like other Mediterranean cultures, dinner is a leisurely affair best enjoyed outdoors in the summer. The lodgings were nice too, though I would not go to Turkey expecting to see all the amazing sights it has to offer without getting a little gritty, any more than one would expect to sleep in a five star hotel at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Frankly, I like things this way. It's simpler, and it discourages those who do not have an interest in experiencing something for what it is.
The archeological sites we saw in Turkey cover the Ottoman, Roman, Hellenistic and Greek civilizations though remnants of earlier bronze age artifacts are present at some locations. The beaches in Turkey were very clean and a lot of fun to visit. All in all, it was a great place to travel, combining history, beach time and a little adventure.
Two weeks after we returned from our trip, Turkey was shattered by a major earthquake causing substantial death and injury, especially in and around Istanbul. No doubt, it will take years repair all the damage to their infrastructure, and the quake will scar permanently the lives of many. I hope this does not frighten people away from this unique part of the world. One should remember that few parts of the world are immune from calamity, be they crime, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods or whatever. An Easterner might question the wisdom of living in California given the numerous earthquakes. A Californian might question why anyone would live in the Midwest where tornadoes strike with regularity. A Midwesterner might question why anyone would live near Boston where one risks one's life just crossing the street. Life is all about taking risks, and in my view, playing it safe is a pretty dull way to be.
We began our trip in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. Ankara is a bustling city with lots of the usual roadways, traffic, congestion, buildings and so forth. One unusual feature of Ankara is that it is growing quickly. Since the airport is located outside of the city, one can get a good view of the multitude of buildings under construction along its rim as one rides the bus into the city proper. From the main bus station, we took a cab to Chris and Doug's apartment. We had been warned about Turkish driving so the cab ride did not astonish us, but I could see how someone exposed to a Turkey cab ride without preparation might need several weeks a therapy before traveling in a car again. For starters, Turkey sports the worst driving fatality statistics in Europe. This might explain why every vehicle in Turkey has at least one good luck charm, and many dashboards are literally plastered with "Blue Dots" (to keep away evil blue eyes or spirits), beads and placards with statements like Allah Korusun or "Allah travels with us." It sounds silly, but there is no point in turning away help if it is available.
Since we stayed with Christine and Doug, we got to see some of Turkey's premiere private university. (The most notable public university in Turkey is Middle East Technical University built by the US for Turkey at the height of the Cold War.) Bilkent has lots of new, clean buildings and nice facilities. This was my first exposure to the "cell phone" culture so common overseas. It seemed as if more people than not had cell phones on their hips. I do not know if this is a comment on the quality of the normal phone service, a sign that the Turkey people are "on the go," or perhaps a status symbol of sorts.
For those interested in history, the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations is said to the be the most complete and best museum in Turkey for bronze age artifacts. We spent several hours there because the museum was fairly large and covered several thousand years. There is a large collection of pottery and stonework from several early Anatolian settlements, including a large stone relief of Gilgamesh. The museum has some coverage of the Classical periods all the way through Byzantine and Ottoman coins. If you go, do not forget to go into the basement where there are several large marble statues and a Roman grave.
There is also an "old town" where there is a bazaar with loads of carpet dealers, copper merchants, antique dealers and so on. Turkey is all about carpets, and they are a matter of national pride. After seeing a fair number, I think Turkey has a lot to be proud of. Though buying a carpet in Turkey is a cliché, it is also a lot of fun. The purchase is actually a social event. Christine, Doug, Tammy and I joined with a friend of Christine's to buy some carpets and spent over an hour with a very kind carpet dealer. They will offer tea or soft drinks which one should accept without feeling obligated to buy. The Turks are genuinely hospitable people.
Late that evening, we said good-bye to Ankara and boarded a bus for Ayvalik.
Most travel in Turkey is by bus, and Turkey has an excellent collection of private bus companies. I am told that there are very few rail lines in Turkey, and travel by rail is not always as nice as by bus. Christine had already made arrangements for us to travel on a "second tier" bus line, so we did not have to wrestle with reservations. One should understand that traveling on a bus in Turkey is like flying in the US. The seating is assigned, so if you are traveling in a group and want to sit next to one another, it is best to have a reservation. Often buses will be booked well in advance, especially for longer trips such as the one we were taking. The only "first tier" bus company is Varan. We never got to ride on Varan because it was always booked up, but we heard that it was well worth the extra lira it would cost. All Varan buses have air conditioning. We have heard that they take good care of their passengers by passing out lots of snacks and so forth. Best of all, Varan guarantees that its drivers will not drink. Unfortunately, we were not booked on Varan. We were booked on Pamukkale which came recommended in the Rough Guide. I think the Rough Guide was a little too enthusiastic about this company.
Our bus trip was going to be an overnight journey. We would leave around 10:00 pm and arrive by 8:00 the next morning. It sounded easy once I saw the bus was one of those large Greyhound machines. We stepped out off the dusty streets into a big, air-conditioned bus. We had big comfy seats that reclined. The bus driver and his assistant looked like reasonable folks. With two people, the ten hour haul could be broken in half and each would only have to drive for five hours. It sounded reasonable to me. I figured I would just fall asleep in Ankara and wake up in Ayvalik. Ten hours of sleep is Heaven to me. Unfortunately, it went downhill from here.
The minute the bus started moving, the A/C shut down. I do not know why. Since the bus was air-conditioned, the windows did not open. I managed to doze regularly only to awake with a moist, grimy feeling. I also found that even at night, it is best to travel on Turkish buses with your eyes closed. The bus swerved and rocked around curvy roads with a life of its own. I like to think that he driver was asleep because no conscious person would trace out the path we were following. I noticed there were several near head-on collisions with oncoming vehicles. (I have read that some Turks do not turn on their lights at night, so I am not sure how many cars whizzed by unseen to me.)
We made many stops in the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes, we would stop at "rest stops" where people could use a bathroom and buy something to eat or drink. This sounds nice, but whenever the bus stopped, the driver turned on all the interior lights, and his assistant would thump around up and down the aisle. Thus, if one was lucky enough to nod off, one could count on waking up every hour or so. Sometimes, the stops would be more mysterious. One time, I woke up to find us stopped in the middle of nowhere. After looking around a bit, I noticed a bus station way over on the other side of the highway. We sat for about 15 minutes. It was around 0300, and I thought something was wrong with the bus. Then, two people came running out of the darkness, through their bags into the cargo compartment under the bus and hopped onboard. I guess the bus driver was waited for these two passengers... Another incident is stranger still. Tammy woke up in the middle of the morning when the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere. There were several of what looked like balls by the side of the road. Tammy saw the driver's helper collect a few of them, stow them under the bus, and then the bus continued. She is not sure if this really happened or if it was some kind of dream.
For
all the oddities in this journey, we managed to arrive in Ayvalik a
bit ahead of schedule. A short cab ride later, we were at the
Otel Kaptan in Ayvalik. We were early, but the innkeeper
invited us to wait on the terrace while our rooms were made ready.
Generally, pensiyons like this one are affordable and comfortable in
Turkey. To give you a rough idea, the Otel Kaptan had nice
clean rooms, each with a private bathroom for $18/night including
breakfast. Despite our someone disheveled condition, we
felt perfectly at ease and on vacation the second we found four empty
chairs on the cool marble terrace with blue Aegean waters lapping at
the edge a few feet away. A person could easily spend a day in
this one place and never know that the time had passed.
We chose to stay in Ayvalik because it seemed like a central location from which to explore several archeological sites and it is reputed to have a good beach. Best of all, though it is frequented by Turkish vacationers, European and American tourists have not flooded the place yet. In fact, we we arrived, we found that the vast majority of people there were Turks. It would appear that the threats of the PKK worked, and the local tourist industry was feeling it.
For those unaware of the political situation in Turkey, some explanation is in order. Though I consider myself well informed on world events, especially those involving human rights, I do not pretend to be an expert on Turkey or the Kurds. The Kurds are a large ethnic minority residing in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. A large number have also emigrated elsewhere. For instance, Germany now has a large Kurdish minority. The Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world that does not have a homeland, and perhaps this is why they are in the news so much. Most of Turkish Kurd minority live in the Eastern region of Turkey which is less developed and more impoverished than the west. For some time, a Kurdish rebel group known as the PKK has been active in Eastern Turkey. Their goal is the establishment of a Kurdish homeland in eastern part of Turkey and their means are violent. I do not know how many people they have killed or how many of their own have been killed in clashes with the Turkish authorities. Their leader, named Ocalam, was captured overseas by Turkish commandos a few months before we traveled to Turkey. In response, PKK groups openly stated that they would bomb tourists. In fact, very few bombs went off. Unfortunately, a bomb in Istanbul killed over a dozen shoppers including a single German tourist. As a result, tourist from Europe plummeted prior to our arrival.
We kept a close eye on the situation in Turkey prior to leaving. Some of our relatives and friends questioned our wisdom in going. In fact, the only other bombing incidents occurred far to the East where we would not be traveling. Still, we took precautions like avoiding crowds of western tourists and crowds in general when possible. We tried not to draw attention to ourselves as westerners in case someone was looking for a target. We also never used the "O word" (Ocalam) or "B word" (bomb) out loud in public lest a Turk misinterpret our intentions. In general, this takes little to no effort in most places, and I seldom even thought about these issues.
Now, it is difficult to avoid vacationers at places like Ayvalik where there is plenty of warm weather, blue skies and white beaches. After all, we had reserved our first two days for nothing but sun and fun. Outdoor cafes, "tourist shops" and party boats cover the waterfront area in town, and the beaches are on the fringes to the east and west.
Eager to stretch our legs after so many long plane and bus trips earlier in the week, we opted to walk the five or six kilometers to the beach. We hiked along the road with the Aegean on our right confident that we could not help but come upon the beach eventually. Oh, how wrong we were! Unknown to us, we should have turned inland at one point. After an hour or so, the road we were following left the coast and wandered inland. We walked quite a ways on a lonely road that wound through a cypress grove. We asked some folks at a little honey stand by the side of the road if they knew the way to the beach. We could not understand what they were saying but the pointed further down the road and smiled encouragingly.
Not long after we set out again, a young Turkish couple pulled up in a little Fiat to ask directions to the beach. We did not understand them, and they did not understand us, so naturally we hopped into the back seat of their car. After all, if you are long, you might as well be lost in a car than lost on foot, right? Anyway, we did not find the beach right away. The road wound up a small mountain to a cafe called "Satan's Dinner Table." If we had not hitched a ride at the bottom, we would probably still be working our way up to the top. Anyway, we hung out together, snapped some pictures of the excellent view, and moved in our newfound friend's Fiat.
Surprisingly, we did find the beach eventually. It was already 3:00, but we still had many hours left to enjoy the water and sand. The water is so blue and the sand so white that it is easy to forget that you are sharing the beach with lots of other people. Vendors wander up and down the beach selling snacks. The most popular snacks are sweet corn carried about in metal buckets, and baked sesame rings resembling pretzels that the vendors balance on their heads on a large palette.
Hoping not to impose on our friends with the Fiat any further, we decided to ride a "dolmush" back to town. A "dolmush" (literally "stuffed") is a minibus that has no regular stops. It will pick up a passenger anywhere along the road and drop you off anywhere. It is common for a dolmush to flash its lights or honk at you if you are walking along the road to see if you want a ride. If you wave or show some interest, they will stop. Since rides are very inexpensive, it's a convenient and affordable way to go from one point to another along a major route. The down side is that the profitability of these dolmushes hinges on the driver's ability to cram as many people as possible into the bus. On the ride back from the beach, the dolmush looked like one of those Life Magazine photos fro from the sixties of college students filling up a VW bug. People were crammed into every seat. The aisle was pressed so full of people that I did not need to hold onto anything. I slipped off my daypack and set it by my feet to make room for a few more people. There were even people sitting on the dashboard and in the driver's seat with the driver so that when we approached curves, he had to push them toward the doors so that he could see up oncoming traffic around the bend in the road.
The seafood was great in Ayvalik. Like many Mediterranean cultures, dinner starts late and lasts a long time. We lingered over mezas (similar to tapas, a variety of small dishes that everyone shares). I must confess that this early in our trip, Tammy and I were a little tentative about eating. Many visitors to Turkey experience an adverse response to the food in what amounts to burning and strong cramps. Indeed, my worst nightmare was to have stomach problems on a long bus ride somewhere in the middle of Turkey. Fortunately, we never had this problem, but we eyed all the squid suspiciously before temptation set in, and we ate everything in sight.
Breakfast at the Otel Kaptan is a typical Turkish breakfast (as opposed my friend's Greek breakfast: coffee and a cigarette). Breakfasts like this were the norm for entire trip and included olives, hard-boiled eggs, bread, jam, tomatoes and cucumbers. After a few days in Turkey we settled into a regular routine of filling up on breakfast, finding a snack sometime in the afternoon and then having a late dinner. We found that it worked well.
We enjoyed the beach so much our first day, we returned to the same place again. The other option was to go for an all day trip on a party boat. These big double-decker boats playing rock n' roll at high volumes. They travel to remote beaches for the day and return in the late afternoon. Throughout the night, they blow their horns, each with a little unique diddie like "The Twilight Zone" or whatever. It looked like fun, but we opted for more peace and quiet.
In addition to being a good spot for fun and sun, Ayvalik is a good base of operations to visit the sites of Pergamum and Assos. Since these sites are hard to reach by bus, we opted to rent a car and take our chances driving.
Yes, it was time to take the plunge and attempt to drive in Turkey. There is no better way to see the site of Pergamum as the buses and taxis prove to be both expensive and inconvenient. The ruins of Pergamum are scattered in three distinct locations so that visiting them without a car can take a full day, the greater part of it spent hiking from one to the other.
When driving in Turkey, one must be defensive to an extreme because the drivers tend to take inexplicably dangerous risks. Cars routinely pass on blind curves, and use the road shoulders as buffers. Generally on two lane roads, one should assume that other drivers will treat it as having a third lane running up and down the center. Hence, to be really safe, I tended to ride way out to the right. When traveling around blind curves, I would mentally plan on what I would do if two cars appeared shoulder-to-shoulder in the opposing direction. Sometimes, there were no safe options, but fortunately, we were never placed in this situation.
The ruins of Pergamum are divided into three regions: The acropolis, the Asklepion and the Red Basilica. All of these sites follow the common pattern of many cult sites wherein older civilizations and beliefs are absorbed into newer ones. The transition need not be a violent one. Sometimes, one religious cult proves to be more acceptable than another and culture grows into the new beliefs. At the same time, some flavor of the old remains. For instance, the Red Basilica was built on top of an ancient temple to the Egyptian god Serapis.
We chose to start with the acropolis, which is the high point on the hill above the city. Acropoli are often used as a place of last defense as well as the site for temples. In this case, the Romans extended the Greek precinct by extending the top with an elaborate system of arches and vaults to support the new structures they would build on top. In addition to worshipping gods, the Romans worshipped their emperors and there is a beautiful Temple of Trajan. The alter of Zeus lies a bit down the hill. Unfortunately, the frieze from this site as well as a large chunk of the alter was swiped by a German team in the late 1800's, and now resides in the Pergamum Museum in Berlin. (I have been to this museum and the artifacts are amazing.) However, the Alter of Zeus as it now stands is still a site to behold. What the German team failed to realize is how much environment contributes one's appreciation of an ancient structure, so seeing the barren foundation in Pergamum in its proper setting gave me a much more complete impression. Also a little below the acropolis is the Great Theatre that, in ancient times, could seat 10,000 people and still retains its outstanding acoustic properties. A person speaking in a low voice at center stage can be heard far up at the top of the theatre. A little below this are the ruins of the Temple to Athena. The scale of this whole arrangement is pretty amazing. It was pretty hot that day, and scrambling up and down the acropolis to see all the goodies really takes its toll. Every time you reach another ruin and say to yourself "Hah, this great. I think I'll sit here in the shade and take a rest." You see another pile of dressed marble 200 yards up the hill and through some brush, and the sight inspires you to push on to see it up close.
Also on the acropolis are the Temple to Dionysos and the ruins of their library. Though everyone knows about the great library at Alexandria, most people do not know about the great library of Pergamum. Pergamum's library was large and world famous. King Eumenes II is said to have paid for Aristotle's books with an equivalent weight in gold. The same king is said to have expanded the library by borrowing from other libraries and not returning their books. (Ah, a true academic!) Anyway, the rivalry of this library caused Egypt to ban the export of papyrus which was the only known reliable medium for scrolls at the time. The king offered a reward to the person who developed an alternative writing medium, yielding the invention of parchment. Since parchment does not roll well like papyrus, the codex (sheets of parchment bound into books) was also invented. Alas, the story does not have a happy ending. The library was pillaged by Mark Antony to show his love for Cleopatra and was entirely destroyed by barbarians in ancient times.
Further down the hill, there are some ruins of roman homes, a gymnasium and the foundation of a Temple to Demeter. Near the gymnasium, there is the remnants of a stadium complete with starting blocks.
So much for the history... By this time, we were already hot, tired and dehydrated. Time to move on!
Not wanted to sound like a turd, but this was a bit disappointing. As I mentioned before, it is large, red brick Byzantine church built on the ruins of a temple to the Egyptian god Sarapis. We picked our way carefully through the ruins because there were a few pits opening into some of the ancient subterranean cult passages, but for the most part, we did not find much of interest. The walls themselves are best viewed from the distance and there is very little else to see.
This site of healing predates many of the structures on the acropolis and is in excellent condition. The ruins include a library branch of the larger one on the acropolis. a Temple to Telesphoros where patients would meditate, sleep, dream and interpret their visions, a Shrine to Artemis. At this point, we were pretty hot and tired, but the quality of the site rejuvenated us. That's what I call healing. This site itself is named after the hero/god Asklepios whose attribute, the caduceus (a winged rod with intertwining serpents), is still the symbol the medical profession. He was such a great healer that at the peak of his career, he raised a man from the dead. Fearing that he would disrupt the natural order of things, Zeus struck him dead. Later, he reconsidered and gave him a place among the stars. Sound a bit like Jesus? Well, his myth is far older than Christianity, and it is easy to see why the early Christian church banned his cult.
Without digression much more than I already have, I should relate a bit about what the ancients considered to be the healing process. People came to the Asklepion to be healed. Much of the healing process involved fasting, exercise, rest, meditation and the analysis of the patients dreams. Entertainment in the on-site theatre was also considered an important component of the healing process. So, when it comes to treating chronic illness, how far have we progressed since then?
We finished the day with one last dinner with Doug, who would be returning to Ankara that evening. Traveling by himself, Doug was praying that he would be seating with a non-smoker. Fortunately, his return was uneventful. When I say that Doug's farewell was particularly painful for me, it is not because I bonded with him especially though he is a great guy. The fact was that I was badly sunburned on my back from our previous days at the beach. Of course, I did not share this with anyone because it was my own fault for not having put on a bigger SPF sunscreen. So, when Doug slapped me heartily on the back before hopping aboard the bus, the tears in my eyes were not just the sadness of saying good-bye to my sister-in-law's boyfriend.
I am told that the town's official name, Behramkale, is not
really used much by locals in favor of its ancient name, Assos.
There are really two distinct places called Assos. Assos
is a beautiful little village on the coast and way up on the hill
is the site of the ancient city bearing the same name.
The village is just too quaint for words. Imagine a nice little beach surrounded by little cafes with cliffs towering above you. There is a small collection of fishing boats sheltered by a little harbor and... that's it. I can easily see people coming here and never leaving. Upon arriving, we were sorry we could not find some way to stay the night here, but alas we could not see anyway around returning to Ayvalik that night.
After visiting the ruins at the top and cooling off in the Aegean below, we visited a little cafe for our "big meal" which really amounted to a very late lunch. We were eager to try mantis, which are kind of like raviolis. They are served cold in a cream sauce. In trying to figure out how much to order, Christine asked in Turkish whether the mantis were large (meaning serving size). This really took the waiter aback because the size of an individual manti is matter a great pride among Turks, and smaller is better. It was not unusual to see Turkish women gathered in cafes folding minute manti for the days meals. Thus, asking "Are your mantis large?" is similar to asking a married man "Is your wife fat?" Though it might not incite a riot, it sounds a bit rude. Our waiter expounded for some minutes about the tiny nature of their manti and how they were made to the smallest details.
The ruins at the top of the hill are pretty good. The site is still be excavated in fact. The Temple to Athena is supposed to be one of the oldest Doric temples in Asia Minor. The necropolis (i.e. graveyard full of sarcophagi) on the hillside is pretty neat though a bit sinister looking. There is also a Byzantine fortress overlooking the village below. It is said that Aristotle lived here for some time, and they are still excavating his gymnasia on the hillside.
We returned to Ayvalik and walked the waterfront one last time. We tried some of the local sweets including baklava and lokmasi (little donut holes topped with syrup and nuts). Upon returning to our rooms for one last night in Ayvalik, I found that a mosquito had taken up residence. Mosquitos love me but I do not share the sentiment, and so I spent some time trying to hunt it down. Eventually, I only succeeded in annoying Tammy so I went to sleep and woke up with a few bites. I find it odd that all through our travels in Greece, I was constantly assailed by mosquitoes at night. In Turkey, this was more the rare exception than the rule.
From Ayvalik, we proceeded to Selçuk (say SELL-chuck) which was to be our next base of operations. From Selçuk, we would visit Ephesos, Priene and Didyma with a rented car. Rather than traveling straight to Selçuk, we had to go to Kusadasi to pick up our rental car. The bus ride in was so pleasant and uneventful that we were swelling with confidence when we hailed a cab to take us across town to the car rental agency. Our confidence faltered when the cab driver nearly plowed over Chris as he pulled up. I think our driver was blind. There can be no other explanation for his driving. We survived the trip and were soon on our way in our own wheels.
Why leave Kusadasi so quickly? Well, Kusadasi is the Turkish city for folks who do not want to be in Turkey. It's loaded with faux English pubs, German taverns and the like. The beaches are crowded. I guess its the Las Vegas of Anatolia. I was told by a Turk that Europeans like to spend their holidays there because the beer is cheap.
We did not go straight to Selçuk. Instead, we spent the afternoon at the ruins of Priene, but that is another chapter.
We spent the next three nights at the Otel Kalihan in Selcuk. It costs a bit more than most places in Turkey, but I would recommend it to anyone. The hotel is modeled after an Ottoman mansion and is full of antiques. The food is excellent. There's a pool and a ping-pong table. I even noticed a geeky traveler parked in front of a computer that was set up so that guests can email their friends. The staff are friendly and helpful. It has a great location very close to the center of town, and yet secluded by trees and walls. The town bazaar is just a few minutes walk away.
Priene is a great site that is fairly secluded. Since we arrived in the mid-afternoon, we stopped for a snack before hiking through the ruins. At the little outdoor cafe, we met a college student who spoke excellent English. He explained that he took English very seriously because one's English test scores play a major role in which university one can attend.
Priene is a great site. It is a combination of Greek and Hellenic structures. Some guide books we read refer to these ruins as modest, but I suspect this is mostly because the writers were too lazy to hike through them. This city was once a very important harbor, but the river Meander silted up and now it is ten miles inland. By the time the Romans arrived, it was not worth rebuilding. The stone foundations of this site reveal its agora (marketplace), several homes, a stoa, a council chamber, a Temple to Athena, a Roman amphitheater, a stadium, a gymnasium and a sanctuary of Demeter. Some of the ruins are quite overgrown, so it can take a bit of persistence to find things. In fact, I dragged Tammy and Christine through a lot of thorns to find the Sanctuary of Demeter, but it was worth every bump and scrape.
Ephesos is the Big Daddy of historical tourism in Turkey. This might not be the case forever (see Afrodisias), but it is true for now. Ephesos was the central Ionian port city for the Greeks and later the Romans, and was famous for its cult of Artemis. The ruins are in excellent shape, and one can easily spend a day exploring them. One of the more notable ruins is the brothel. You can still see the cobblestone inscription indicating its location. Inside, the mosaic floor is still visible. There are numerous other buildings and fountains throughout the city in excellent condition. In the center of town, there are the homes for the wealthier Romans. These are undergoing some kind of excavation and restoration, but I understand that they are spectacular. The mosaic walkway in front of the wealthier district is pretty stunning, even a thousand years after the city fell into ruins. The Library of Celius is positively stunning. There is a theatre that used to seat 25,000.
Close to the ancient city are the ruins of the Basilica of St. John which is said to have had eleven domes. The ruins of the foundation give a good impression of the vastness of the structure which would have been the largest church in Asia Minor at the time. The ruins are labyrinthine, and every once in a while, a tout will appear as if out of nowhere. He will sneak up to you, and show you a rusty bit of metal. "Roman coin?" He will offer. When I was approached, the tout had several of them wrapped in a foil gum wrapper. I responded "Oh no. I could not take that out of the country. It would be illegal." He looked confused and then faded into the ether. I wonder who buys them.
The museum holds a lot of the artifacts from the site including the cult statue of Artemis. It is famous for its unusual depiction of the virgin huntress, and definitely shows the melding of eastern and western influences. However, this is just one of many impressive pieces on display. We spent over an hour going through the museum.
Close to Ephesos is the Grotto of the Seven Sleepers. The story is far better than the site. Seven young Christians were persecuted for their faith. They fled Ephesos and hid in a nearby cave where they fell asleep... for 200 years. When they awoke, one went out to see if the coast was clear. To his surprise, he found that the world had converted to Christianity! They are said to have been buried in the cave when the died. The cave is sealed off now by a chain link fence, but people tie little pieces of paper to the fence for good luck.
Though seeing the Grotto can be a bit disappointing, there is a great place to grab a bite to eat nearby.
I should start by noting that the Rough Guide to Turkey states that this site is boring. I cannot understand this assessment (see figure at the top), and we were certainly glad we explored this site. Guide books are like movie reviews, I guess. You have to trust the author or authors. In this case, I think the authors lacked an appreciation for ancient ruins. The city is of particular significance as the reputed home of the ancient mathematician and philosopher, Thales, who is considered to have been one of the Seven Sages of the Antiquity.
There is another nice Roman theatre at Miletos, as well as some very good Byzantine and Hellenistic ruins. The deteriorating ruins of a Byzantine fortress sit atop the acropolis. The theater on the side is another grand one that could seat 25,000 people. We hiked around quite a bit searching for the lion's that used to guard the harbor, but we could not find them. Once again, the waters have receded so that the harbor looks more like a little valley now. While we were there, the whole site was swampy so that the Temple to Apollo was sitting in the water. There is also a gymnasium and a Roman bath. (I am not sure how anyone in their right mind could think of these things as boring.)
A short hike away is an abandoned mosque called I'lyas Bey Cami erected in 1404. The stonework and arabic inscriptions are really breathtaking. While we were visiting, a stork was roosting at the top of the dome. In this part of Turkey, storks seem to enjoy nesting at all the high points.
The ruins of Didyma consist of one structure, the gargantuan (For scale, you can see a person standing near the base of one of the column drums.) Temple of Apollo, and it is located right in the middle of the modern town. This temple is remarkable for its tremendous scale. The cult of Apollo is famous for its oracle, and this site was no exception. The Temple is built over caverns where the oracle would go into her trance and so forth... It's construction lasted for more or less 500 years, and they still never finished it. Nonetheless, the Greeks did quite a bit, and it is worth seeing the huge column drums that would easily turn your friend's SUV into aluminum foil without slowing down. The Medusa head friezes are a big tourist draw.
On the negative side, this place is a major tourist attraction, and it was the first time on our trip that we encountered Americans. In fact, we arrived seconds behind two fully loaded tourist buses. At the entrance to the site, a woman behind me was asking the clerk about the admission fee by shouting, "How much would that be in AMERICAN?" She then looked at her companion asking, "I don't have to use their money, do I?" We hurried along, and thankfully avoided the group for the rest of our time at the site. I think that some people would be happier seeing some of these things on the History Channel or A&E where they can be surrounded by all the things that make them comfortable.
We feared Pamukkale was going to be flooded with tourists, and we were right. Located inland of the coast, the attraction of Pamukkale is a limestone cliff with a series of flat pools jutting out. Spring water runs down the cliffs, filling the white pools with bluish-white, mineral-rich water. The cliffs are incredible to see, but so are the crowds. Though it is a natural treasure and the government is slowly taking steps to protect it, there are several resorts built right on top of the cliffs.
The town relies heavily on tourism, and since tourism was down, the competition was fierce. Upon arrival, the touts flocked to us trying to convince us not to stay where we had reservations. The best way to deal with them was to be blunt and turn your back to them. On the up side, the hotel staff worked very hard to keep everyone happy since customers were more scarce than usual. We stayed at a struggling place called the Koroc which was a large rectangular hotel with all the rooms opening onto a large atrium. In the center was a medium sized pool full of the local mineral water. The staff served breakfast and dinner in the courtyard atrium. Though it was hot and the walls of the building halted any breeze that might be tempted to try to creep through town, it was nice to sit in the shade of the trees and relax a bit.
Having arrived at 1300 and not seeing much to do in town, we thought we would hike up to the ruins. After all, we could see the cliffs, and it did not look far. We bought a map and set out up the road. Unfortunately, the task was more daunting than we thought because the entrance was on the other side of the mountain. We followed the road for over an hour to a point where Christine mentioned that she might be getting light-headed. The gate still look far off, so we flagged down dolmus and cruised to the top.
The ruins in the necropoli of Hieropolis inside the gate are really cool. At least, I thought so. They are rather extensive and cover several centuries worth of tombs and sarcophagi. Unfortunately, Tammy and Christine were not as keen as I to poke around so we trekked straight through the necropolis rather than meander. Up ahead, everyone's spirits rose when we explored an agora, and a Byzantine gate and church.
At the end of the ruins, the tourism nightmare begins. Large crowds of people swarm about entering and leaving the pools. Having been out for many hours, we paused at a little snack stand for a drink. Here, something strange happened. One of the fellows who runs the stand but spoke no English started punching me in the shoulder. At first I was confused but then I realized that he wanted to arm wrestle me. I did not see any way out of the situation except to agree. I tried my best but lost in the end.
From the tourist area, we walked away from the pools to explore the ruins of the Delphinium (a temple to Apollo) and the theatre. Both these sites have active excavations so many portions were taped off.
Finally, we removed our shoes and waded in the famous springs. The colors are striking, and fortunately, the authorities have fenced off most of the site to prevent further damage to the pools. We were able to find a scenic trail that ran straight south off the cliffs to the town below saving us some walking and affording us some great views of the cliffs as the sun started to settle.
Exploring both archeological and natural ruins in one day put us a bit ahead of schedule so we opted to make a bus reservation and return to Ankara one day early. That evening, a group of 25 party animals descended upon our hotel and we were able to enjoy some of their festivities including a belly dancer.
The next day, we would go to Afrodisias and then catch the overnight bus to Ankara. The air was hot, humid and still that evening, and I remember hearing the mosquitos licking their chops as we drifted off to sleep. It was an ugly night.
Getting to Afrodisias requires either a rental car or a bus ride. We planned on saving the expense of a rental car and using a van. The arrangements were made through our hotel, and it all seemed rather convenient. When the van arrived the next morning, we found that we would be traveling with a pair of Turks and an Italian couple, so the van would not be very full. It seemed like it was going to be a pleasant trip until...
We soon realized that our driver was a lunatic. Later when we returned to the hotel and asked about the driver, one of the clerks said something like "He promised he would not drink anymore..." Of well. This driver was by far the worst we had seen. Though the road to Afrodisias is not very busy, we still were very concerned. This guy drove at a million miles per hour down the left side of the road around blind corners. Even the Turks were losing their cool. (The Italian couple seemed oblivious to their peril and chatter happily away while oncoming traffic whizzed by with horns blaring.)
Well, we made it to Afrodisias alive. The ancient ruins are almost the only thing in Afrodisias. There are a few dilapidated pensions, but these too resemble ruins. Afrodisias has yet to be discovered. Some savvy investor is going to buy everything up out there and make a fortune one day because the site is spectacular.
Take Ephesos and double the dressed marble and you have Afrodisias. Afrodisias sits near ancient quarrying sites for marble, and so naturally it housed several sculpting schools in its prime. A lot of the site is still under excavation, but there is plenty to see and do. The theatre and Tetrapylon are really cool. The museum has a lot of exquisite marble works including the cult statue of Afrodite. Any one room of this museum would contain enough marble work to fill an entire museum in ordinary circumstances. Of the more interesting works is a bust of Alexander the great. Vandals slit the throat of the statue. (Maybe angry Persians?)
As I said, there is little to do around the ruins. After a few hours of exploring the site, we found a dusty little cafe and waited for our van. Our worst fears came true when our driver from the morning trip returned. Somehow we made it back to the Koroc without getting in an accident.
We spent an afternoon at the Koroc playing backgammon and chatting with a local guide until it was time to catch a dolmus back to Denizli and from there, an overnight bus back to Ankara.
The bus ride back to Ankara was somewhat uneventful, but I still have a vivid memory of seeing the sun rise over the metropolis as we approached from the west. I guess I did not realize exactly how big Anakara was until we spent what seemed like more than an hour traversing it to return to the main bus station. It is quite a contrast traveling directly from the Afrodisias area back to Ankara. I suppose that our movements marked a progression from metropolitan to remote areas. It struck me that suddenly there were supermarkets, movie theaters and a distinct lack of dust in Ankara. Anyway, we were back.
In addition to doing some boring stuff like shopping for gifts for relatives in the Old Town bazaar and so forth, we took an afternoon to see Ataturk's Mausoleum. Ataturk (literally "Father Turk") is the soldier/statesmen who is primarily responsible for the modern Turkist Republic in the early and mid 20th century. I will not go into a lot of details of his life and activities, but in a nutshell, he resisted influences from both the east and west to create the current secular state. He was a wily politician and leader who clearly moved Turkey toward the west (adopting the latin alphabet over arabic for instance) and created a renewed sense of pride in being Turkish. He indisputably revered in Turkey as the father of the country. Many shopkeepers have his portrait prominently in their stores. Not everyone agrees with everything he did, but few would risk speaking out about it. His Mausoleum can be likened to a modern pyramid. Unlike a memorial, he is buried in the complex along with a lifelong friend and advisor. The interior describes his career and many of his possessions are on display.
We spent one last night in Ankara and flew back to the US via Istanbul and Frankfurt early the next morning. Though Tammy and I missed our daughter terribly and would not have considered being away from her any longer, we only saw a small fraction of Turkey and part of me wished we take several months and see the whole thing. (Little did I know that during these weeks away, my parents had been bribing her with Oreos, and she was quite content thank you very much!) I just viewed some photos of ruins on Cypress and I wish I could go there. The eastern portion of the country has a lot of natural beauty and great archeological sites. (It also has Kurdish extremists and malaria, but hey, you cannot have your cake and eat it too.)
Anyway, I have some great memories and photos from our time in Turkey, and I am happy to share them with you. Thank you for visiting this site.
rossi@math.udel.edu
