Aegean Ruins

Life goes on with long days at the beach and some short trips to near by places. As I wrote on my last post we were in Bodrum. On the way to and back from Bodrum we stopped at some lovely ancient ruins. Aegean region is full of them and I love visiting and spending peaceful and quiet hours under the shadows of history.

We first stopped at Lagina; a temple area dedicated to the Goddess Hekate, and it is one of the most important cult centers of pagan Anatolia. Hekate had been honoured as the goddess of childbirth, nurturing the young, gates and walls, doorways, crossroads, magic, lunar lore, torches and dogs. A Goddess for childs and dogs. I think I had worshipped her on another life time.

Second stop was at a near by site. Stratonikea. A city built by a king for his wife around 270 BC. A woman loved too much or some unforgotten political games for power. The ever present romantic in me, want to believe the story of a loved woman. A city of love. Then centuries passed and some Turks established another town on top of the ruins. However they had to abondened their lovely homes because of earthquakes. So today it is possible to visit remains from totally two different periods.




The last stop was at Euromos. A long forgotten town when you look at the pages of a history book. However a magnificent temple dedicated to Zeus still welcomes you to a very different time. Temple is among the half dozen best preserved monuments in Asia and dates from 2nd century AD. Definitely a photographer's paradise. Now I have dreams of photographing this place under the snow..


And finally a very tired Goddess captured by the camera of her husband :))