We’re checked into Orty Hotel next to the Izmir airport. Tomorrow we’ll meet Kelly in Athens and we’ll travel with her through Greece for the next two weeks, spending about half our time in Crete. Here in Turkey, we spent 5 days in Istanbul, flew to Cappadocia where we spent another 5 days, then took … Continue reading
It seems appropriate, on our last day of exploration in Turkey before heading to Greece tomorrow, that we would visit Priene, the finest example of Greek ruins in Turkey. Although a city called Priene is known to have existed as a member of the Greek Ionian League in this area as far back as the … Continue reading
In my last post, I mentioned the Roman villas in Ephesus on Curetes Street, opposite the Temple of Hadrian. We’ll start this post at that point, on the left hand side of Curetes Street, slightly more than 3/4 of the way down toward the Library of Celsus. Here, the Romans constructed multifamily residences on the … Continue reading
Last night at dinner, we were introduced to Tom and Linda, a couple from Sonoma Valley, California, by Nazmi, the owner of our hotel, for the purpose of sharing a guide for a tour of Ephesus. Ephesus is known as the best example of a complete Roman city; not only in Turkey, but anywhere around … Continue reading
We arrived in Selçuk yesterday in the late afternoon. After checking into a nice, small hotel called Nilya, we walked further up Ayasuluk Hill to the ruins of the Basilica of St. John, built in the middle of the 6th century A.D. by Emperor Justinian on top of a former church that had also been … Continue reading
Going around the bend, not one mile after we left Pamukkale, we came upon the Spa Hotel Colossae Thermal. We couldn’t resist, even though this was place was clearly built to cater to the tour bus trade. There were at least a dozen tour buses parked outside. Inside the hotel, we felt like we were … Continue reading
We arrived at Pamukkale at 4:30 in the afternoon yesterday, hoping that the tour buses would have already been and gone. Most had, but there were still plenty of people at the site. The approach to Pamukkale is nothing spectacular: But, once atop the hill, it’s easy to see why Pamukkale is a World Heritage … Continue reading
Yesterday morning, all the charter boats left Bozburun, so we pretty much had the entire place to ourselves. We had visited Bozburun purely by chance and ended up liking it so much that we stayed a second night. I read in one of the guidebooks yesterday that Bill Gates had visited here a couple times … Continue reading
Besides being a popular port-of-call for cruising sailors and charter boats, Bozburun is also a pretty impressive boat-building center. In the harbor, there were quite a few beautiful, wooden schooners and ketches and we suspect that most of them were built right here by local shipwrights and carpenters. And they do it all, starting with … Continue reading
The sparsely inhabited Hisarönü peninsula, which lies south of the bustling tourist party town of Marmaris (which we intentionally avoided) is a favorite of cruisers. It’s surprisingly reminiscent of the Windward Islands of the Caribbean. Difficult to get to by land, but sporting beautiful coves and anchorages, it is mostly ignored by the guidebooks. The … Continue reading
The southern part of ancient Greece was inhabited by a people called the Dorians who occupied the Peloponysian peninsula, including Corinth and Sparta; a number of Greek islands in the Aegean, including Crete and Rhodes; and, a small part of mainland modern day Turkey on the Datça peninsula. You may have heard of the Peloponysian … Continue reading
Before leaving Fethiye, we drove up into the surrounding mountains to see the ghost town of Kayaköy. One hundred years ago, Kayaköy was a village of 2,000 or so ethnic Greeks. Today, it is 500 abandoned buildings, crumbling in the Turkish sun. You might recall that I previously mentioned that the Ottoman Empire ended with … Continue reading
There were six great cities in ancient Lycia. I have written about the two that we have visited, Patara and Xanthos. Each of the six were known for specific attributes: Patara as the governmental center and major port; Xanthos as a hub of commerce. Yesterday, we visited Tlos, known for its Stadium, Gymnasium, Palaestra and … Continue reading
This morning, we left early and drove up into the mountains to the Saklıkent Gorge, discovered as recently as 1986. In Arizona, if dry, Saklıkent would be known as a slot canyon. Supposedly, at 11 miles long, it’s the third longest canyon in Europe, assuming you consider Turkey to be in Europe. On the way … Continue reading
Yesterday, we decided to see the city we’re staying in, so we hopped aboard one of the local jitneys and rode all the way round the city. And it’s a big city: 70,000 people or more. We got off at the Fethiye Archeological Museum, then walked around the shopping district for a while. At one … Continue reading
After Letoon, we continued on to Xanthos, another Lycian city built on a hilltop with a commanding view of the surrounding valley which, today, is covered in shadehouses. Prior to the establishment of the Lycian Federation in 167 B.C., with its Bouleuterion in Patara, Xanthos was believed to have been the capital of ancient Lycia. … Continue reading
Sometimes, you just have to go with the flow and see where life takes you. Our destination after Patara was another Lycian city called Xanthos, but we took a wrong turn and ended up right in the middle of an all-village street bazaar. You could probably buy anything here: screwdrivers, tomatoes, goats, furniture, clothing; you … Continue reading
Yesterday, we drove from Kaş to the larger city of Fethiye where we plan to stay for three nights. This part of Turkey, called the Turquoise Coast, is replete with Lycian ruins. We stopped at three of them: Patara; Letoon; and, Xanthos. Patara, it turns out, is the birthplace (in the 4th century A.D.) of … Continue reading
After a very leisurely morning, reading and writing in the courtyard of our hotel… …we decided to see the ruins which, lucky for us, were literally a stone’s throw away. There are only four historic sites here in Kaş: the Hellenistic period Greek amphitheater, the hillside Lycian tombs, the Lycian King’s Tomb and the Hellenistic … Continue reading
We got a late start out of Çıralı today. Our plan for the day was simple: drive the coast road to Kaş, a fishing village two hours to the west. Kaş, like Çıralı, is difficult to get to, sitting at the water’s edge several hundred feet below the route of the main highway and accessible … Continue reading
Besides the beach, the other attraction in Çıralı is Mount Chimaera and the Yanartaş, the “Flaming Rock,” a half-mile hike up into the surrounding mountains. We started our hike after dinner, just as the sun was setting behind the mountain. There was an eerie feel to the place as we approached, with people huddled around … Continue reading
Continuing our drive west along Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, we planned to drive through, rather than stop in, Antalya. The main airport in the region is here in Antalya, a city of more than 1,000,000 people. Something that has surprised us in Turkey – outside of Istanbul – is that Americans are a bit of a … Continue reading
About 20 miles west along the coast, we stopped to visit the Roman ruins at Aspendos, primarily because of its Theater and Aqueduct. These structures, along with a Basilica, Gymnasium, Hippodrome and several other public buildings, were built in the late 2nd century A.D., during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. The Theater at Aspindos is … Continue reading
Side thrived under Roman rule, serving as a significant port, olives being one of the main exports. A Roman fleet and garrison were stationed here and, at its peak, the city had more than 60,000 inhabitants. We spent yesterday roaming around the Roman ruins. As I previously mentioned, the town of Side sits on the … Continue reading
The peninsular settlement that is modern day Side was first inhabited by Greeks from Cyme around 700 B.C. It was subsequently occupied by Alexander the Great, another Greek, in 333 B.C. and by the Greek island city-state of Rhodes in 190 B.C. So, by the time the Romans came to Side around 75 B.C., the … Continue reading
The Road Less Traveled 