Turkey — without turkeys
We spent quite some time in Turkey because it is a big country crossing two continents and it takes a long bus ride to go from one place to another.
Although 95% percent of the population believes in Islam, Turkey cannot really be called a Muslim country.
Unlike many Arabic countries, the Turkish government, her politics and law are neutral with respect to religion.
Religion here is a personal issue, not a national one.
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Food in Turkey
The Turkish population consists of over 95% Muslims, who do not eat pork.
Therefore pork is not sold anywhere.
Nor is turkey. At least we didn’t find any.
Why is a turkey called turkey?
I know there is some history behind it, but it took me quite some time to dig it out.
The American Heritage Dictionary says turkey is named “after Turkey from a confusion with the guinea fowl, once believed to have originated in Turkish territory”.
Wikipedia and
The Merriam Webster Online also supported the same idea.
Then Kaan Yeşilyurt (Khan) told me this amusing story,
which you should definitely read (besides being entertaining, it is more informative than the dictionaries linked to above).
We arrived in Turkey in the evening and our first meal there is the breakfast.
We have tomatoes and cucumbers, and bread and hard boiled eggs too.
I would prefer the cucumber steamed instead of raw, but it is good anyway.
And the tomatoes are fresh and tasty, with their rich content of Vitamin C and essence of the Mediterranean sun.
Then for the lunch, we have as salad tomatoes and cucumbers, raw and plain.
As for main course, the beef is fine too.
Then for the dinner, we have for salad again tomatoes and cucumbers.
The main course is either beef or chicken, brilliantly cooked to taste exactly alike.
Then the next day, we have of course tomatoes and cucumbers for breakfast, and without doubt tomatoes and cucumbers for lunch, and needless to say tomatoes and cucumbers for dinner.
And then the next day continues this cuisine of elegant simplicity.
Fortunately we only stayed in Turkey for 15 meals.
Fifteen meals of tomatoes and cucumbers.
Sufficient to make me refrain from eating them for some months to come.
I heard that many people love Turkish cuisine, but very probably they were not eating what our agent prepared for us.
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Istanbul, the capital of Turkey
Istanbul is on the west coast of Turkey.
It embraces two continents, one arm reaching out to Asia, the other to Europe.
In the city's heart, the Bosphorus Strait, courses the waters of the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara and the Golden Horn.
The former capital of three successive empires — Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman — today Istanbul honors and preserves the legacy of its past while looking forward to its modern future.
The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a good web page on History of Turks and Turkey.
You can also read History of Instanbul by Virual Instalbul.
For tourists like me, the most famous place is the Blue Mosque ![]()
.
According to Muslim traditions, women entering a mosque must cover her head.
So you have a chance to see Irene with her pretty shawl ![]()
.
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Sultanahmet, the Blue Mosque
Actually the Blue Mosque is not blue. At least not now.
Formally called the Sultanahmet, this 17th century mosque is famous for the beautiful blue tilework ornamenting its walls.
Now, most of the blue colored tiles on the walls and ceilings are gone, leaving a whitish look.
While the Blue Mosque is neither the biggest nor the most beautiful mosque nor the most prestigious in Istanbul, it has the highest prestige in Turkey.
Have a good look at it: ![]()
and count the number of minarets.
Since Muslim built mosques, they built minarets.
Five times everyday, Muslim prayed in the direction of their holy city, Mecca.
Five times everyday, the priests climb the minarets of the mosques to call the Muslims to start praying, and to chant the prayers.
Nowadays, mosques usually attach loud speakers at the top of the minarets instead, but the practice of building minarets continues.
Sultanahmet has more minarets than any other mosque you can visit, unless you happen to be a Muslim yourself.
And it has a long story.
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Story behind the Blue Mosque
When the Blue Mosque was built in 1550 AD, Sultan Ahmed instructed the architect to build it with the minarets made of gold.
Even if the Sultan had enough gold, a minarets made of gold would still be impossible to sustain its own weight.
The architect decided to build a mosque with six minarets instead, because it so happened that six (Altı) and gold (Altın) sound alike in Turkish.
When Sultan knew it, he was angry at his cheating and demanded his death.
The architect invented a very good excuse.
He said that the number of minarets represented the status of a mosque: the high the status of a mosque, the more minarets it had.
Small mosques have one or two minarets, and bigger mosques have four.
Even the mosque at Mecca has only six minarets.
So it meant, he explained, that Istanbul had the same footing as Mecca and would lead the whole Muslim world.
The Sultan happily accepted his explanation and the Blue Mosque became the most important mosque outside Mecca.
There is a short sequel to the story. Mecca, of course, objected.
As a result, the Istanbul provided the money to build a seventh minaret at Mecca.
In the whole world, there is only one single Mosque with seven minarets, which is at Mecca; and there is only one single mosque with six minarets, here at Istanbul.
The Mosque at Mecca is not open to non-believers.
So if you are not a Muslim, then the Blue Mosque is the mosque with the highest number of minarets you can ever visit.
Refer to
![]()
A Sir Banister Flether's: A History of Architecture, Centenary Ed.
for additional details.
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Aya Sofya (Haghia Sophia) Museum
St Sophia was an ancient Byzantine church built in 535 AD by the emperor Justinian.
It is not named after a Sainte called Sophia.
Instead it was built in the name of “Sophia”, ie wisdom.
In the past, churches are rectangular with transepts added on both sides.
After the Nika rebellion in 532 AD, Justinian needed a symbol of his power.
He rebuilt the Haghia Sophia using the Roman Pantheon as a model.
It took the architects quite some time to figure out how to build a circular dome over a square building, and the result has been an architectural wonder ever since.
In the 6th Century BC, great building used to be built with thick walls.
It was thought that doing this would make the building more robust against earthquakes (which is very frequent in Istanbul).
St Sophia uses instead an idea of our times: to build it light and flexible, so that it could better survive earth quakes.
Besides its new architectural design, even the clay used was the result of special researches.
They are lighter than those normally used, and has a larger tensile strength, holding the walls together.
Even after 14 centuries, St Sophia lived up to the expectation of the designer.
Even the 7.5 quake in 1999 (not long after we left Turkey!) failed to bring any harm to it.
After Holy Roman Empire fell, St Sophia was converted to a mosque and minarets are built around it.
Muslim caligraphy is also added to the interior of the church.
The remarkable structure with its immense dome has become the blueprint for Blue Mosque and all subsequent mosques.
Today, St Sophia has become a museum, and is no longer used as a place of worship.
Go to Turkish Ministry of Culture
or Virtual Instanbul
to read more about Haghia Sophia.
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Topkapi Palace
Topkapi was the first Ottoman palace to be built in the newly conquered capital of the Empire.
Located on the spot where the foundations of the city were first laid in ancient times by Megarian Chief Byzant in seventh century BC,
the palace boasts one of the most beautiful views of Istanbul, incorporating the Bosphorus, the two shores and the sea of Marmara.
Unlike the European palaces, Topkapi is not a single monumental structure but a more organic complex made up of various kiosks, gardens and areas spread over the tip of the historical peninsula at the entry of the Golden Horn.
It was turned into a museum in 1924 and has become one of the most attractive palace-museums in the world.
Attractive, because it houses the world’s second largest diamond, the kasikci, as an exhibit.
Go to Turkish Ministry of Culture
or Virtual Instanbul
to read more about Topkapi Palace.
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Yerebatan Sarayi: the Cistern Basilica
In the 6th century, a great underground resevoir is built and is known as the Cistern Basilica.
The Byzantine cistern ![]()
has fine brick vaulting supported by 336 Corinthian columns.
The columns were robbed from other places: Greece, Egypt, any place with columns in their colonades or temples or whatever.
As a result, the columns differ from each other is shape and style.
One of them has tear drops all over the surface: ![]()
Go to Virtual Instanbul to read more about Cisterm Basilica.
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Cistern Basilica (continued)
Sometimes the columns are of the wrong height, so some are truncated, and some need to be padded with something below.
Two of the columns are padded with the head of Medusa.
Since Medusa has great evil powers, they decided to place the head side ways ![]()
or upside down ![]()
.
The Basilica now houses a fine restaurant and hosts musical and theatrical performances.
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River Cruise
Istanbul is best seen from the water.
On the last day, we took a morning cruise on the Bosphorus, the winding strait that separates Europe from Asia.
We ![]()
(what?! you haven’t watched Titanic?!) glide past opulent palaces, exquisite mosques and imposing fortresses.
This was once a palace but now has become a luxurious hotel ![]()
you can visit if you have the money.
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River Cruise (continued)
The Dolmabahce was built in 1853 in the rapidly growing northern section of the city, at the Marmara outlet of the Bosphorus, to replace the Besiktas Palace which was pulled down for the purpose.
It housed Sultans and their entourages before the Republic, and it was then used by Ataturk during his visits to Istanbul.
Ataturk died here on the 10th of November, 1938.
The palace ![]()
now serves as a museum and as a guest-house for foreign statesmen.
Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror built Rumeli Fortress ![]()
directly opposite Anadoluhisari in 1452.
He built it at the narrowest part of the river and prepared for his final attack on Istanbul.
It lead to the downfall of the whole Byzantine Empire.
Today, the fortress hosts many concerts and dramatic performances in its amphitheatre.
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Belly Dancer
While Turks are politically and racially unrelated to Arabs, Turkey has imported quite some cultural influence from Arabia.
One of them is is the Belly Dance.
A sexy dance, for the Muslims at least.
We went to a show and took a picture with the dancer ![]()
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City of Troy
From Istanbul we rode along the Sea of Marmara and past Saros Bay with its breathtaking views of the Aegean and Dardanelles.
Then we crossed the Dardanelles by ferry ![]()
and arrived at the City of Troy.
Troy is now in ruins ![]()
.
Most of the buildings were destroyed, but we can still easily make out the city theatre ![]()
.
In recent years, Turkish government has also built a new wooden horse
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at the city entrace for us to ride.
The first thing any visitor should ask is: where is the sea?
Troy is supposed to be a city next to the sea.
It was, when the Greeks seiged the city and when Homer wrote the Illiad.
Nowadays, the sea shore is miles away.
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Story of Troy
The Trojen War is probably the best known story of Homer.
It all starts with the wedding of Peleus and Thetis,
Sidebar 1: story of Peleus.
Sidebar 2: story of Thetis.
Sidebar 3: what happened at their wedding.
Sidebar 4: the Trojan War.
During the war, Paris and his father Priam were killed.
Aeneas, a cousin of King Priam, led a band of Trojan refugees to Italy and became the founder of Roman culture.
Numitor, King of Alba Longa, was a descendant of Aeneas.
His brother Amulius dethroned him and forced his only daughter, Rhea Silvia, to become a Vestal Virgin, so that she would not have offsprings to threaten his throne.
However, Mars took Rhea Silvia and she became pregnant and bear the twins Romulus and Remus.
Rhea Silvia and the twin babies were thrown into the river Tiber.
The god Tiberinus saved Rhea Silvia, but the twins were rescued and brought up by a she-wolf.
When they grew up, they built a city at the place where they were saved.
Later, Romulus accidentally killed Remus during a small quarrel and became the first king of Rome.
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Story of Peleus
Peleus was the son of Aeacus, King of Aegina.
He was one of the Argonauts who accompanied Jason on the quest for the Golden Fleece.
And he is the father of Achilles.
Peleus and his brother Telamon killed their half-brother, Phocus, and had to flee Aegina.
Peleus went to Phthia, where he married Eurytion's daughter, Antigone.
During a hunt, Peleus accidentally killed Eurytion with a spear, and had to flee Phthia.
He flid to Iolcus.
Queen Astydameia fell in love with Peleus, but he repulsed her advances.
Thus she sent a message to Antigone telling her that Peleus was to marry the daughter of King Acastus.
On receiving the message, Antigone hanged herself.
After the death of Antigone, Peleus married the Nereid Thetis.
Continue with story of Thetis
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Story of Thetis
Thetis was one of the Nereids.
Nereids are the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris who dwell in the Mediterranean Sea.
These beautiful women were always friendly and helpful towards sailors fighting perilous storms.
Zeus desired her, but she rejected his advances.
The goddess Themis revealed that Thetis was fated to bear a son who was mightier than his father.
Fearing for his dominion, Zeus gave Thetis as bride to a mortal, Peleus.
Thetis was the mother of Achilles.
She wanted to make Achilles immortal.
She dipped the child in the river Styx (the river separating the world of the living from the world of the dead) holding him by the heel.
All the parts that the river touched became invulnerable, but the heel remained dry.
Achilles was later killed in the Trojan war because of this vulnerability.
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Wedding of Peleus and Thetis
Since their marriage was arranged by Zeus, all the gods attended the wedding.
They brought magnificent gifts, including armor made by Hephaestus and a pair of immortal horses from Poseidon.
All went well except that Eris was not invited.
Sidebar 5: Who is Eris?.
Eris came anyway.
She threw a golden apple into the middle of the wedding.
Inscribed on the apple was a message.
It reads To the fairest.
Immediately, the apple was claimed by Hera, Athena and Aphrodite.
They all asked Zeus to decide on who should receive the apple.
Zeus knew how much trouble he would be in if he decided on one, because the other two would have grave revenge.
So Zeus descended to Mount Ida where Paris was farming and asked him to be the Judge.
Sidebar 6: Judgement of Paris.
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Who is Eris?
Eris is the Greek goddess of discord and strife.
She is sinister and mean, and her greatest joy is to make trouble.
Eris has a golden apple that is so bright and shiny everybody wants to have it.
When she throws it among friends, their friendship come to a rapid end.
When she throws it among enemies, war breaks out.
The golden apple of Eris is the Apple of Discord.
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Judgement of Paris
Very probably, this Paris had nothing to do with the French capital.
Paris was the youngest son of Priam, the King of Troy.
It was foretold in the dream of his mother Hecuba that he would be the cause of the downfall of Troy,
Therefore, he was sent out of Troy in hopes that the message would be false.
He went to Mount Ida in order to be a shepherd.
But as always, what is fortold will come true despite mortal intervention.
He finally made the choice that started the Trojan War, which ended by the fall of Troy.
Since Zeus asked Paris to determine who is the fairest, the three goddesses decided to make it easier for him to decide.
Hera offered to give him all of Asia, and great power.
Paris thought this offer was great, but he decided to hear the other offers before deciding.
Athena offered him great wisdom and great luck in battle, so that he would be the best strategist and would win in all his future battles.
He loved this idea, but he waited to hear Aphrodite's offer.
Aphrodite’s offer is irresistable to mortals.
She offered him her body, and the love of Helen.
Side Bar 7: Who is Helen?
Paris decided to pick Aphrodite’s offer, and asked Zeus to gave her the Golden Apple.
With help from Aphrodite, Paris went to the palace of Menelaus in Greece and carried Helen off to Troy.
He also took a lot of treasure with him.
All of Greece declared war on the city of Troy.
The Greeks laid siege to the city and the Trojan War began.
Hera satisfied her thirst for revenge by taking the side of the Greeks.
She was not to be content until the whole of the Trojan race was destroyed.
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Story of Helen
Helen (usually known to us as Helen of Troy) was the most beautiful woman in the world.
Helen was the daughter of Tyndareus and Leda.
One day when Leda was bathing in the pool, she saw a beautiful white swan who was Zeus in disguise.
She was ravished by the Zeus, also received the attentions that same night of her husband.
She laid two eggs (as if she were a bird): one egg contains Pollux and Helen from the seed of Zeus, the other contains Castor and Clytemnestra from the seed of Tyndareus.
Castor and Pollux are known as the inseparable twins.
They were honoured by Zeus and were placed in the heavens as the constellation of Gemini.
When Helen reached marriageable age, all the greatest men in Greece courted her.
Her father, King Tyndareos of Lacedaemon, was concerned about the trouble that might be caused by the disappointed suitors.
Acting on the advice of Odysseus
(Side Bar 8: Who is Odysseus?),
he got all the suitors to swear that they would support the marriage rights of the successful candidate.
He then settled on Menelaus to be the husband of Helen.
Therefore, when Helen ran off with Paris, Menelaus called on all the other suitors to fulfill their oaths and help him get her back.
As a result, the Greek leaders mustered the greatest army of the time and set off to wage what became known as the Trojan War.
After the fall of Troy, Menelaus took Helen back to Lacedaemon where they lived an apparently happy married life once more.
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Story of Odysseus
Odysseus (called Ulysses in Latin) was the ruler of Ithaca.
He was one of the most prominent Greek leaders in the Trojan War, and was the hero of Homer’s Odyssey.
He was known for his cleverness and cunning, and for his eloquence as a speaker.
Odysseus was one of the original suitors of Helen of Troy.
It was he who advised King Tyndareos to get the other suitors to swear to defend the marriage rights of the successful candidate.
However, when Menelaus called on the suitors to help him bring Helen back from Troy, Odysseus was reluctant to make good on his oath.
Prophecy had announced that he could only return from the war after 20 years, so he pretended to have gone mad, plowing his fields and sowing salt instead of grain.
Palamedes placed Odysseus’ infant son in front of the plow, and Odysseus was forced to reveal his sanity.
However reluctant he may have been to join the expedition, Odysseus fought heroically in the Trojan War.
And the Trojan War lasted 10 years, longer than anybody had anticipated.
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Odyssey
Odyssey is the other famous poem of Homer.
It is about the journey of Odysseus before and after the Torjan War.
Odysseus was also the originator of the Trojan horse, the strategem by which the Greeks were finally able to take the city of Troy itself.
Odysseus' return from Troy, chronicled in the Odyssey of Homer, took ten years and was beset by perils and misfortune.
There were problems in Ithaca as well.
During Odysseus' twenty-year absence, his wife, Penelope, had remained faithful to him, but she was under enormous pressure to remarry.
A whole host of suitors were occupying her palace, drinking and eating and behaving insolently to Penelope and her son, Telemachus.
Odysseus arrived at the palace, disguised as a ragged beggar, and observed their behavior and his wife's fidelity.
With the help of Telemachus and Laertes, he slaughtered the suitors and cleansed the palace.
He then had to fight one final battle, against the outraged relatives of the men he had slain.
Athena intervened to settle this battle, and peace was finally restored.
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The Trojan War
The events of the Trojan War are the subject of much ancient art and literature including Iliad of Homer.
The Greeks besieged the city for ten years and did not make any progress.
Oracle said that Troy would not fall unless Athena’s Palladium had been stolen from the palace within the walls of Troy.
The Palladium was a sacred image of Athena.
It makes perfect sense: while Athena is the goddess of war, she secure peace and protect cities.
Diomedes climbed over the wall and managed to steal the figure.
Then Odysseus devised the Trojan Horse.
Greek soldiers filled it and wheeled it into the city.
They said the wooden horse was a gift to appease Athena, whose image had been stolen.
At night, the soliers crept out of the horse, fired the walls of the city and Troy fell.
As it had been fortold, Paris led to the fall of Troy.
Paris himself died during the war.
After the war, Menelaus took Helen back to Greece.
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Cannakale
After an exhausting day at the City of Troy, we continued to Cannakale for a good rest.
The hotel is new and beautiful.
So new that one of the wings isn’t yet finished.
It is built next to the Aegean Sea and it has also a beautiful swimming pool ![]()
we can see from the balcony of our room.
Since the sun has not set and the water is warm, we can’t wait to put on our swimming suits ![]()
and give it a visit.
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Ephesus
The next morning, we passed Izmir, Pearl of the Aegean.
It is Turkey’s third largest city and second most important port.
The city has palm-lined promenades, avenues and green parks set in sweeping curves along a circular bay.
Turkey’s Aegean shores are among the loveliest landscapes in the country.
The magnificent coastline, lapped by the clear water of the Aegean Sea, abounds in vast and pristine beaches surrounded by olive groves, rocky crags and pine woods.
The city is also a busy commercial and industrial center as well as the gateway to the Aegean Region.
From Izmir, we went to the ancient city of Ephesus.
Ephesus belongs to the Roman Empire era and is reckoned to be the best preserved classical city in the world.
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Ephesus — Basilica
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We enter the city via the Basilica, which was built during the Augustus period.
This was a 160m long building with a wood covered roof.
Later on during the Augustan period column heads were changed from Ionic style to Corinthian style, but some of these columns are still intact.
Sidebar: styles of columns
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Next to the Basilica is the Odeion.
It was built as a political meeting place (bouleuterion) initially.
There were seats for 1400 people in the form of 23 tiered rows in a semi-circular shape.
There was a two storey stage facing the seats with a podium in the front and a semi-circular space for the orchestra.
The whole structure is believed to be covered with a roof.
During its life time the building was used more often for concerts and art events.
That is why it was called Odeion instead of Bouleuterion.
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Then we continued on the Curetes Street
with marble statues and columns on both sides of the street.
Notice that the street itself is made of marble!
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Architectural Orders
There are three main styles of columns in Greece and are copied throughout the Mediterranean.
- Doric
- An architectural order devised in the 7th century BC, based on the wooden forms of earlier architecture.
Columns have plain capitals, flute shafts and no bases, and the upperworks include a frieze of metopes and triglyphs.
It is most common in mainland Greece, South Italy, and Sicily, but little used after the 4th century BC.
- Ionic
- An architectural order devised in the 6th century BC, deriving from earlier floral and furniture patterns of oriental type.
Its columns have fluted shafts, moulded bases and volute capitals, and the upperworks have a continuous frieze.
From the 4th century BC onwards its design of capital becomes increasingly replaced by the Corinthian.
- Corinthian
- An alternative order of architecture to the Ionic, its capitals being four-sided and composed of small corner volutes and a basket-shaped body decorated with rows of acanthus leaves.
Invented in the later 5th century BC and most popular in the Roman period.
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Ephesus — Curetes Street
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Midway on the Curetes Street is the Hercules Gate
It was built in the 4th century A.D.
This monumental gate was a two storey building with six columns on each floor.
Some of the columns with reliefs are exhibited on Domitian square today.
There are Heracles statues attached on to two of these columns.
The arch of the gate is missing.
Some of the materials used in the gate during the construction were taken from the other buildings, which were made in the 2nd century.
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On the Curetes Street we also found the Hadrian Temple.
This is the second temple (the first was the Domitian Temple) dedicated to a Roman emperor.
It was built in 138 A.D. by a citizen of Ephesus, P.Quintilius, and dedicated to the emperor of Rome.
The elegant workmanship of the front wall and the entry to the temple in between the columns were the most spectacular parts of the building.
The outer front section of the temple was hold by four columns.
Two round ones in the center were supporting the arch with a statue of Tyche (the goddess of the city) in the upper middle section.
The outer columns were square shaped.
The temple has been renovated recently.
The figures representing the foundation of the city by legendary King Androclos on the inner stone walls of the entry section are replicas of the originals.
The originals are now on exhibition in the Ephesus Museum.
The front section of the temple is still considered to be one of the most elegant buildings in the city.
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Ephesus — Library
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At the end of the street is the ancient Celsus Library, one of the three largest ancient libraries of the world.
The Celsus library is one of the outstanding monuments of Ephesus.
It was built in 117 AD as a mausoleum for Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, a Roman consul.
His body still lies under a wall of the library.
The body was kept in a lead container inside a marble sarcophagus.
The sarcophagus is made of white marble, and is adorned with sculptures of Eros, Nike, and Medusa.
The statues in the niches of the facade are copies of the originals and symbolise the wisdom (sophia), knowledge (episteme), intelligence (ennoia) and virtue (arete) of Celsus.
At the Celsus Library, the Curetes Street turns right angled into Marble Road, the main road of the city.
A place a place where men, especially visitors, can find women is just on the opposite side of the road, facing the library.
People often joked that a tunnel had been built so that men inside the library could visit the Love House while pretending to stay inside the library.
The Love House was a typical two storey peristyled Ephesus house.
It is estimated to be built in the 1st century during emperor Traian.
It is known to be used until the 7th century.
The second floor is totally destroyed throughout the centuries.
The first floor walls were full of frescos.
The courtyard of the house was covered with mosaics.
There were signs showing the location of the Love House on the Curettes Road.
This is the first known advertisement of the world.
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Ephesus — Theatre
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At the junction of Marble Road and Harbour Road, we found the theatre.
When the theatre was first built in the Hellenistic Age, it was purely used for ceremonies and sports activities.
And it was the first of the Hellenistic Age stadiums.
The spectators’ seats on the south was resting on the slopes of the Mount Pion (Panayirdag).
The seats on the northern section were placed on the heightened vaulted galleries.
There was a monumental entrance gate to the Stadium on the west.
Other than the sports activities and ceremonies, gladiator and wild animal fights became very popular especially during the Roman Period (3rd and 4th centuries AD).
During the following centuries as the Christianity gained momentum, the Stadium was destroyed mainly by the Christians as a revenge to their suffering and massacres in the past in this Stadium by Roman rulers of the city.
The Harbour Road originally leads to the port.
The rise and the fall of the Ephesus came by the sea.
By being the most important port city of Anatolia, the city had reached its peak as a commercial city.
The river Kaystros (Kucuk Menderes) filled up the small port of Ephesus with aluvion throughout the centuries.
After a long time of struggle with disappearing port, the citizens of Ephesus gave up in the 2nd century A.D.
This caused the city to loose its trade links to the other cities by the sea.
And it was the beginning of the end for the city of Ephesus.
The city is 5 kilometers away from the sea shore now.
And the Harbour Road now ends at a swamp.
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Pamukkale
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Pamukkale is in the South Aegean Region.
It is a magical and spectacular natural site, unique in the world; a fairyland of dazzling white, petrified castles.
Thermal spring waters laden with calcareous salts running off the plateau’s edge have created this fantastic formation of stalactites, cataracts and basins.
Unfortunately, the place is getting yellowish these years.
Pamukkale is now covered by a comprehensive protection and construction plan and needed restoration work has already begun.
Also known as Hierapolis, the hot springs have been used since Roman times for their therapeutic powers.
Both the thermal center with its motels and thermal pools, and the ruins of the ancient city of Hierapolis, are situated on the plateau.
Wealthy people of the Roman times used this place as a sanitorium, and many died here of an old age.
As a result, the plateau is also filled with coffins and tombs to the amazement of the visitors today.
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From the road side, we followed the water path down the white rocks.
It was a long way but it was fun!
The scenary is beautiful.
Under the dry climate, running water always make one happy.
We descended to the point where the stream has become too narrow to follow and returned.
continued...
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