Hierepolis Antique City

Pamukkale is one of the main tourist attractions in Turkey thanks to its cotton like hills formed due to hot water flowing down the cliff and carved this formation. Many local and foreign tourist love to walk on these white hills and pay dearly to enter the nearby ancient pool of the antique city..The columns inside the pool were from an earthquke in the 7th century.

 However our main purpose was to explore the ruins of the antique city of Hieropolis which is located near the white hills. Hieropolis founded around 190 BC and had always been a tourist attraction thruout the history thanks to its thermal waters. It was a healing center and its hot waters used as spa since 2nd century BC.

 The photo below is from the latrines of the city. It's an interesting thing how they loved to chat and relieve themselves at the same time...

 Most magnificient building is the theather. It was constructed in 129, and Italian archeologist are working on it since 1957. It had a capacity of 9500 and known with its gladiator fights..
Although it was almost the end of September, the weather was so hot and as I was experiencing the initial stages of a heatstroke, I couldnt take some decent and detailed photos of the theatre. I realize that lately we are dealing with unexpected harsh weathers in our travels. Maybe its time to make some offerings to Hermes, the protector of the travellers. Afterall antique cities are THE places where I can find him..

Sea Glasses

I always like sea glasses without knowing particularly why and collected a lot of them during my summers and now winters at the beach..I think I found the answer when I read this piece..

'…The shard of cobalt blue sea glass you’ve just found was once a bottle until it outlived its original purpose and was cast into the sea. There, amids the tumult of elements, raging waters dense with salt the bottle churned against rock and reef breaking it into ever smaller pieces.

Smoothed by the very silica from which the bottle was created by man deploying technology, its edges and surface being reclaimed bit by tiny bit until all that remains is a piece of glass the size of a finger nail, smoothed by years of ebbing tides which appears at your feet. Why do we as humans discard the original bottle yet cherish the tiny fragment of its former self? Does knowing what it was mitigate or enhance the delight in finding it? As someone whose own efforts sometimes pluck the sensual soft shards of gren, aqua,amethyst, blue, cobalt, once clear and now frosted glass from ocean beaches far and wide I know that what I cherish is the connection to the impossible journey that brought this ‘’treasure’’ to me. That it still remains and is now in my hand is chance of discovery and infinite possibility..'

Above paragraphs are from this book. LOVE the name and the book.

As for the above photo,I couldnt trace the original source so dont know which talented photographer took it.

Laodikeia - Denizli

We are back from our short trip where we visited couple antique cities in Denizli and Burdur. As you can easily guess archeological digs requires lots of time, patience, and a lot of long term financing. Turkey has so many Greek and Roman sites as well as stone age settlements but very few of them rather lucky in terms of financing .For the last couple years Laodikeia antique city in Denizli is one of the lucky ones thanks to the financial support of Denizli municipality. While there was nothing substantial to see few years earlier, it is now one of the hot zones in archeology world.

Laodikia established around third century BC and dedicated to Laodike, the wife of the founder of the city,Seleukos King Antiokhos Its commercial activities and especially its wool and textile industries made it one of the wealtiest cities of its time. It was also home to one of the oldest Christian communities and ranked among the Seven Churches of Asia. One of the well known visitors of the city was Cicero. Its been known that famous statesman and preacher came to this city in 50 BC and dealt with some legal problems of the city.

Floor of the temple covered with glass so it is possible to see below which was the sacred room of the temple and it was used as the archive of the nearby church during the Christianity era. It was rather scary to walk on it..However hubby and his identical twin brother were mischievous as always...

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Autumn in Mediterranean..

Autumn in Mediterranean is all about

• new tastes along with the old ones
• bright new colors along with the paler ones
• empty beaches
• cooler mornings and nights but definitely much cozier
• seeing much missed sand lilies at the beach, but still enjoying the summer flowers
• much better sleep in cooler nights, much better swim in autumn sea..
• its not saying good bye to summer but enjoying the best of summer and autumn in a single day

Akdeniz'de sonbahar;

• eski tatların yanına yeni tatların eklenmesi
• canlı renklerle soluk renklerin bir arada olması
• bomboş sahiller
• serin sabahlar ve akşamlar
• özlenen kum zambaklarının tüm yaz çiçeklerinin yanındaki yerini alması
• serin gecelerde daha iyi uykular, en güzel sıcaklığındaki denize daha güzel dalmalar
• yaza elvada demek yerine, bir günün içinde hem yazı hem de sonbaharı yaşamak demektir..

September in Datca

I spent the weekend in İstanbul to attend the wedding of a dear cousin of mine.As its been almost 6 months since my last visit, it was pretty difficult to adjust the big city life; like waiting in the traffic for 2 hours to pass the bridge, to walk in crowded streets surrounded with impatient and sullen faced people, fast pace of life etc.Once again I feel that we are so lucky to be able to make the decision to live in this small Mediterranean town.

September in Datca is just beautiful. No more very hot days..Weather and the sea tempreture at its best with rather empty beaches to enjoy. These photos taken last evening by hubby, while Hera and I walking at the beach to collect some driftwood..

Geçtiğimiz hafta sonunu çok sevdiğim bir kuzenimin düğününe katılmak için İstanbul'da geçirdim. Son kez İstanbul'a gitmemin üzerinden neredeyse 6 ay geçmiş, ve her seferinde olduğu gibi büyük şehirdeki hayat beni yine şaşırttı..Karşı tarafa geçmek için trafikte 2 saat araba içinde beklemek, sabırsız ve asık suratlı insanlarla dolu kalabalık sokaklar, hayatın hızlı akıp gidişi....Yine her seferinde olduğu gibi, Datça'da yaşamaya karar verebilecek kadar şanslı olduğumuz için şükrettim..

Datça'da Eylül ayı ise tek kelime ile muhteşem. Artık o yakıcı sıcaklar kalmadı. Havanın da, deniz suyunun da sıcaklığı tam kıvamına geldi, üstelik bir de yaz kalabalığı her geçen gün biraz daha azalmaya başladı..Bu fotoğrafları ise sevgili, dün akşamüzeri Hera ile beraber sahilde dolaşırken çekti...

One of those days....

Yesterday I found out that, our vacuum cleaner is not working and today its the dish washer. Guys from the service just came and picked both of them to repair. They will probably be back in a couple days of time. In the meantime our floor just looks like a replica beach thanks to all the sand Hera brings home from her countless swims and rolling on the sand... In the meantime I have a tons of dish to wash from yesterday and today and did I tell you that its also so HOT....

Dün elektrik süpürgemizin bozulduğunu fark ettim, bugün de bulaşık makinesi iflas etti. Biraz evvel servisten gelip ikisini de aldılar.Bir kaç gün içinde geri gelecekmiş. Bu arada yerler, Hera'nın denize girip sahilden sürekli eve taşıdığı kumlar nedeniyle mini bir kumsal havasında..Dün kü ve bu sabahki bulaşıklar ise dağlar gibi yığılmış beni bekliyor..Bir de havanın gerçekten çok sıcak olduğunu söylemişmiydim..

 It would be a perfect crises situation for the old me but the new me has totally different priorities so when I spotted these flowers on the neighbours garden in the middle of all these mess, I thought its much important and joyful to play with them and with my camera..As for the floor and the dishes they could wait for me forever...

Eskiden olsa bu tam bir kriz durumu oluştururdu, ama Datça'da yaşamak insanın önceliklerini değiştiriyor. Şu anda komşunun bahçesinde yeni fark ettiğim bu çiçekler ve fotoğraf makinemle oynamak çok daha öncelikli..Yerler ve bulaşıklar ise beni sonsuza kadar bekleyebilirler...

August Laziness...

I cant believe that I only wrote 1 post this month..Last 3 weeks were very hot and after our morning walks and swim, we mostly chosed to stay inside and spent rather lazy afternoons until the sun let us to go outside and play again...

So in those lazy afternoons we read many many books, watched many many films, enjoyed delicious naps and when I got bored I made some polka dot vases with some left over paint and stickers..

But most of all we made plans for the coming autumn and winter months..Especially the travel part was so much fun..So far we decided to go with the two of them. Towards the end of September it will be the ancient Greek city of Sagallassos located in the southwestern Turkey..Amazing discoveries and restoration projects are going on there and we have to see it with our own eyes...

 photo: wikipedia

Last but not the least we are travelling to Morocco at the beginning of November..It's been more than 10 years passed since my last visit and I cant wait to stroll in the souks and narrow streets of that colorful country...

photo :http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/morocco-guide/

Although I was so lazy on the blogging side, facebook page of Turquoise Diaries was and still very active..I like to post many photos from our daily life. I am finding it as a very efficient way to communicate and just like a  mini blog..Please check us at:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Turquoise-Diaries-Datca/208796625865787?ref=hl