Ancient city of TLOS

During our short trip to Kalkan, we had the chance to visit the ancient city of Tlos, a very favorite but recently very much neglected hobby for hubby and me. We have covered most of the ancient cities on the Aegean coast of Turkey but the ones on the Mediterranean coast ( Lycian area in the past) are rather new to us.

Tlos has a historical past dating back to 2000 years BC. Once it was the home of Romans, Byzantians and as well as Ottomans. Rock tombs which are rather fine samples of the Lycian culture has a very dominating view over the city. And as always the tradition there is a very nice theatre.

As hubby is still recuperating from his illnes, I made all the climbing and he gave me the tactics from the base camp. It was a beautiful day..

Aizanoi Antic City

We were planning to visit the Aizanoi antic city and its impressive temple of Zeus for a while.We took the opportunity to visit it while visiting my mom in Eskisehir.It is located in the nearby city of Kutahya. It needed some extra travelling but totally worth the trouble. Of course Hera the puppy was with us, visiting the temple of her unfaithful husband.

Temple was built in the 2nd century by the Romans.


The basement of the building is as interesting as the temple itself. Thanks to impressive technics of the Roman builders, the huge temple stands on top of this basement for centuries, in an area where big earthquakes hit several times in the history.



My little archaeologist keenly observed every detail of the antic theatre but couldnt find anything to eat.


The round building located right in the center of the nearby village used as a stock exchange building during the Roman period.

A part of the antic road with its beautiful columns could still be seen today in the village.

Van

I see and envy all the snowy pictures on the blogs of this side of the world. As of today we still do not have any snow, not a bit. As I also want to post some snow photos, here is an old post for you. I wrote this piece for another blog after my 2 weeks long travel on the Southeastern part of Turkey.Year was 2007.

''In the second half of April I went to southeastern Turkey that is also part of ancient Mesopotamia. When we left the house very early on April 20 to catch the Van airplane, there was a warm and bright air in Istanbul. After two hours, when we landed at Van, I was shivering. The weather was really cold.

Van museum that is displaying the important Urartian artifacts was closed due to renovation and no body knew when it would be opened again. So we went to the Van castle that was built by the Urartian King of Sardur the 1. It was almost noon and the weather was just freezing. I put on my hat and gloves that I did not have the chance to use in Istanbul during winter and tried to remember the Van of 20 years ago, when I visited right after my graduation from the university. There was no park arrangement around the castle at that time and I think there were more children around. The children I photographed at that time might have their own child right now.

After visiting Kaya Çelebi mosque and Hüsrev Pasha Külliyesi, which look like two identical buildings from the castle, we returned to the city. Restoration works were done at both mosques. After lunch we hit the internationally named bazaars of the city and finally it was started to snow. Ironically Iran, Russia, Japan and Europe bazaars were crowded with Chinese and Indian goods, you could find some interesting stuff if you could dig the stalls long enough.

In the afternoon we went to the food markets in order to taste Van. Although they are only mentioning cheese in the name of the Grand Cheese Makers Market, shops selling viscera occupied almost half the market. After viewing the heads, legs, brains and tongues that were displayed on the stalls in neat ways, we purchased the famous cheese of Van prepared with different herbs. After buying warm flat bread from the Küçük Yıldız Pide Fırını, we ate them at the coffee house of İzzet with hot tea. They were just delicious. When we heard that the honey of the honey producer Behçet is worth tasting, we also found his store and bought a jar of honey.

When we took a minibus to go to our hotel located near the Lake Van, the ladies I chatted at the bus told that this weather was also a surprise for them as they also had a very mild winter. After the snow and the hard wind during night, I was almost sure that we would not be able to make our trip to the island of Akdamar on the lake. But the morning of April 21 welcomed us with a bright and sunny day on a blue lake, although everywhere was covered with snow. The snow we did not have the chance to see whole winter in Istanbul was just in front of us with all its beauty.

As there was no other group visiting the island and the 10th century Armenian church of Cathedral Church of the Holy Cross that was restored and reopened at the beginning of April, we had all the chance to enjoy the island, castle and the beautiful weather. The church was built between the years 915-921 by architect monk Manuel during the reign of the Vaspurakan King Gagik the 1. When I look at the photographs of the church that I took 20 years ago the difference between today and the time with its partly ruined roof covered with weed was quite striking. But this time I spent more time taking the pictures of snow covered almond tree flowers.

While we were traveling near the lake towards Ahlat where we were going to spend the night, the triplets of sun, snow and lake were with us showing their most beautiful faces all the way. When we reached Ahlat where the largest Seljuk cemetery from 11-12th century located, snow only remained on the tops of the far away mountains.

Dalyan - Kaunos - İztuzu Beach

Last week I took you to the modest grave of the last Ottaman Sultan in Syria. Today, let me show you some other tombs from Dalyan. I dont know if they are modest or not but they definitely have a good view. They are the tombs of the kings of Kaunos..


Dalyan is a small town in the south west of Turkey, famous with its rock tombs, Kaunos antic city and İztuzu beach which is the breeding ground for Caretta Caretta - loggerhead sea turtles. Best way to reach Kaunos and the only way to reach the İztuzu beach is to rent a boat and sail thru the Dalyan river, and that' s what exactly we did 2 weeks ago.

We have rented a boat and this time my mother and my niece were with us..

We first stopped at the ancient city of Kaunos. It was a city in the ancient Caria. It's location over the river and its ancient theatre where you can sit under the shadows of olive trees were beautiful.

Our last stop was İztuzu beach which was voted the best beach in the world in 1995. After my experience with its luke warm water I can say that turtles and I do not share the same opinion on what a good sea should feel like. As the photo I took that day did not give the necessary credit to one of the best beaches in the world because of the crowds, here I am putting a photo from my friend Ozan Alperden. He took this photo in the spring. I think its a good view of the 6 km long beach..

Temple of Apollo at Didyma

The only question came to my mind when I was standing in front of the Temple of Apollo was if I was going to lead a happy and fulfilled life..

Although the famous oracle of the temple gone long ago, I still heard her answer in the silence of my heart. '' - You can, if you choose to...''

I'd better believe her as it was she who told Alexander the Great that he will beat the Persians right at this place.

In 313 BC, the Milesians began to build this temple on the site of the earlier shrine, which they intended to be the largest in the Greek world. Construction continued during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC and the Oracle of Apollo at Didyma rivaled that of Delphi. However it was never entirely completed.

In those days , pilgrims walked 20 km along the Sacred Way from Miletus to the temple to worship Apollo and also to find answers about their future. Well, in modern times we did not walk that distance but drive. I guess it still counts...

While we were leaving Oracle also whispered to my heart that I will always be happy with this man :))

Priene

I love visiting ancient cities. A couple quiet minutes spend by sitting on a thousand year old pillar always reminds me that nothing is permanent. I like imagining the people, how they lived, what they cherrished and even sometimes try to hear their sounds in the blowing wind. It's always a great meditation about life for me. All those beautiful ruins, much loved cities, temples and Gods, gone long ago, remind me not to cling on to anything. Nothing is permanent: All our material treasures, all out loved ones, our lifes..... What we really have is the moment we are in, rest was and will be history..

Luckily we have plenty of ancient cities around here for me to meditate. Today I will take you to ancient Hellenistic city of Priene. We stopped there 2 weeks ago on an early morning. I was quite hungry so before starting to climb the city, I fed myself with grilled goat cheese and tomatoes, which were the only available things in a small restaurant at that hour.

Priene is a beautiful city established on a mountain around 8th century BC. Pillars of the Athena temple welcomes you to the city. They are magnificent. For my day dreaming time I found a shadow under a pine tree, near the temple. I tried to visualize Alexander the Great and the time he spent in this city during his siege of another nearby city Miletus.. Well, as Hollywood gave us the image of handsome Collin Farrell as Alexander the Great, it was rather easy to imagine him ordering the construction of this temple and probably standing right by my pine tree to decide where to built it.

Our last stop on the city was it's small theater with VIP seats.. Theater originally built in the 4th century BC by the Greeks, and later was expanded by the Romans in the 2nd century AD to hold 6,000 spectators.. One of my guide books said that whoever visited this theater had not miss the opportunity to photographed himself sitting on one of the 5 VIP chairs. So that's what exactly we did..

House of the Virgin Mary

If you ever visit Ephesus and if you are a Christian by religion, the possibility of you to visit the house of the Virgin Mary is 99%. It's very close to Ephesus and why not gain some merit while you are around.

It is believed that Virgin Mary had spent her last days in this house which is in the vicinity of Ephesus and that she had died there. It is an important pilgrimage place visited by thousands of tourists every year. The last holy VİP guest was Pope Benedict XVI who visited the shrine in 2006.

If you can ignore the crowds, it is a very nice and peaceful place on top of a mountain. After visiting the chapel, you could light candles, drink from a spring running under the house which is believed to have healing properties and make a wish on the wish wall by tying a piece of fabric.