Afrodesias

Afrodesias began as a prehistoric mound around 5000 BC. It's later temple was a pilgrimage site from the 6th century BC. By the 1st century BC it had become prosperous due to is marble quarry. It's about 120k from Pamukkale and relatively remote so doesn't get the crowds that Ephesus does and, while not as dramatic as Ephesus, it's much larger and quite lovely. My enjoyment of a site is partly contingent on crowds so both Sam and I enjoyed this more than Ephesus because of the few people. We had another nice breakfast at Hassan's before piling into the shuttle with some other folks and set off. The last leg of the trip is by a tractor-pulled wagon that takes you to the site and we commenced to explore.

The theatre were town hall meetings were held.

 

The stadium seating 30,000 where athletic competitions and gladiator games took place.

 

The museum at afrodesias is excellent and houses much of the statuary from the site.

The hall housing reliefs

Back at Hassan's I watched the next door neighbors harvest olives. As you might imagine, olive cultivation is very big in Turkey, to put it mildly. They knock the olives from the trees with a rake-like implement onto a tarp from which they dump the olives into buckets then take them for processing.

Hassan and his family were eating a late lunch when we returned, I don't know who was who except for his wife. There were a bunch of them and they'd been working on the farm all day. I asked about some of the stuff they were eating and, next thing I knew, he insisted Sam and I join them. So we sat down to platters of wild mushrooms with egg, aubergine/tomato stew, bread to dip in a sweet grape sauce, everyone eating from the same platters. Wonderful food. Normally I'm not fond of aubergine, but this was delicious.

We had several hours to kill before the night bus to Cappadocia so Sam went for a run and I wandered around a bit, we ate more of Hassan's good food and eventually went to get the shuttle that took us to the bus station at Denizli. Next stop Cappadocia.

I'll have the "optional native", Sam will have the "swell the calf", or maybe the "swell hen". Hard to choose.

 

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Pamukkale travertines

These saucer-shaped travertines, or terraces as they're sometimes called, wind sideways down the mountain, the blue of the pools a startling contrast to the blinding white calcite covered mountain.

These pools are directly below Hierapolis and the way back down to town goes through them. After the relative quiet and seclusion of the ruins, the crowds were a surprise but the pools are the main attraction for most visitors. You have to take your shoes off to protect the calcite surface but the water is warm and it isn't slippery. It was raining pretty steadily by then but Sam got right into the water and I contented myself with watching under the shelter of a tree.

Pretty soon the rain stopped and the sun poked through giving a lovely sunset and golden light to the mountain and the ruins.

It was getting dark so we made our way down the mountain and back to the hotel for another of Hassan's tasty dinners complete with mushrooms that he'd gathered in the forest by his farm and complimentary Turkish wine.

 

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Hierapolis

A four hour bus ride took us from Selcuk to Pamukkale where the ancient Roman ruins of Hierapolis are. We were blessed with another great hotel in Pamukkale, the Dort Mevsim. What made it great was the owner, Hassan who goes out of his way for guests. At least he did for us. As well as running the hotel, he has a farm and grows most of the food for his restaurant and the food was excellent.

 

Pamukkale is pretty much dependent on tourism and the the business people there are very aggressive in marketing their hotels, restaurants, tours, ice cream, you name it. Hassan was quite clear that he wanted a review on Trip Advisor from us but wasn't overly aggressive. Had a nice veggie lunch there after which Hassan drove us up to the top gate of the site which encompasses both Hierapolis and the white travertine/terraces and pools. It was a grey day, threatening to rain and getting late in the afternoon when we started our tour of Hierapolis.

The ruins at Hierapolis "evoke life in a bygone era in which Greeks, Romans and Jews, pagans, Christians and spa tourists peacefully coexisted." Hierapolis became a curative centre when founded around 190 BC. It prospered under the Romans and even more under the Byzantines. Recurrent earthquakes brought disaster and Hierapolis was finally abandoned in 1334.

The travertine pools next.

 

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Ephesus

Ephesus began in the 10th century BC and, in its hay day, had over 250,000 inhabitants. After almost 150yrs of excavation, it is the most complete classical metropolis in Europe, and still 85% is yet to be uncovered. Lots of info on Google if you're interested. It's short distance to the coast gives easy access for the cruise ships and the day before our visit, there were 20 ships in. So, yes, it was crowded. Kinda like the Istanbul tram.

But a beautiful site nonetheless. You just have to try to stay focused on the antiquities though at times I felt a bit claustrophobic.

Nike - find the swoosh

Mosaics

Inside a terrace house

The library

Telling it like it is

Returning to Selcuk, we lunched at the same place, spent some time on the rooftop terrace at Homeros, passed the afternoon lazily and ended a nice stay. Tomorrow Pamukkale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Leaving Istanbul - arriving Ephesus

A wild and anxiety fraught exit. Looked like a very simple train trip from town to Ataturk airport and it would have been ....... IF: Sam hadn't forgotten his newly purchased clothes at our airbnb. We rode the metro to its last stop and before transferring to the airport train, he realized. We had lots of time so he took off back, ran the kilometre to the airbnb, ran back to the metro and in about half an hour was back with me. Good thing he's an athlete. But his Opa was in a sweat. And IF: I hadn't left my iPad in the tub at airport security. That sent me into a tizzy. Realized just before we went through security to the boarding gate. I hate to confess it but my travel life is set up on that little device and I've become quite dependent on it, (some of you may be able to relate). Hotel info, flight info, contacts, books, banking, and most importantly, this blog ;-) So I raced back to the checkpoint where I thought I'd left it and, no they said, no tablet, go downstairs. But the sign for lost and found pointed upstairs. Upstairs and downstairs I raced. No lost and found. Dripping with sweat, I finally gave up and started back upstairs to the gates resigned to the loss of the tablet. Inadvertently I strayed out of the security controlled area and had to go back through another security check and realized that that was the one we'd originally come through and, YES!, they had my iPad! A very big whew. Smooth sailing after that. A 45 min flight to Izmir, another large city on the south of the Sea of Marmara and a flukey bus connection immediately to our destination, Selcuk for the visit to Ephesus. Lovely, warm weather in Selcuk and a wonderful hotel, Homeros Pension. Such a relief after our scuzzy airbnb in Istanbul.

The dining room

Homero's mom greeted us and set us up with our room.

Breakfast at Homeros

Then a great lunch down the street at Mehmet and Alibaba's Kebap House and a stroll around town.

Not much to the town, lovely setting with mountains all around, an agricultural place with a section for the few tourists who don't visit Ephesus from their cruise ship.

I noticed hot water solar setups on almost every house and have been surprised to discover that this is the case all over this region. No solar for energy production though.

In fact, Turkey is almost totally dependent on imports for its energy resources and consequently has the highest gas prices in the world at $9.98/gal US. Doesn't seem to be much of a deterrent to driving though, or an incentive to develop other forms of transportation or energy.

Sam went for a run then we had dinner at the same place and that was it for the day.

 

 

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