Road Trip – Ephesus and Pamukkale

After a month at the marina, Bob and I decided to take a road trip to see some more of the sites in Turkey.  We hired a car and headed northwest.  The mid-November weather has been wonderful and we can still go around in T-shirts and sandals during the day.

Our first stop was Bodrum.  This delightful town is also a port of entry/exit from which we will probably check out of Turkey next May.  So we thought we would check out the marina and reconnoitre the town for future reference.  It is the off season so the town was pleasantly quiet but filled with interesting and upmarket shops.  However the real attraction of the town for us was the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology.  It contains treasures excavated from ship wrecks along the Turkish coast from the 14^th Century BC to the 16^th Century AD.  The oldest artefacts are from the late Bronze Age Ulu Burun ship wreck found off the Cape between Kaş and Kekova Roads which we sailed by during our Lycian Cruise.  Little did we know what lay underneath as we sailed along.  The amazing thing about this wreck is that it totally revised our understanding of the extent of trade during this time.  The contents of the ship included Assyrian seals, Canaanite jewellery and weapons, ebony from tropical Africa, scarabs from Egypt, amber beads from the Baltic and an Italian sword.  The excavation required more than 22,000 dives in 50 m of water and 11 years to complete 

Bodrum harbour

The bay at Bodrum in the autumnal late afternoon light

Exquisite glass from the ship wrecks

Ivory ducks

The next day we stopped off at Didim to check out the Temple of Apollo.  This temple was the second largest in the ancient world and dates from the 6^th Century BC.

The base of one of the 120 columns

Interior of the Temple of Apollo

Two of the remaining upright columns

Bob at the edge of the Temple

As we were driving towards our next stop we stumbled upon another ruin, the ancient city of Priene, so pulled off and had a look.  Perched on a hillside it was once a sophisticated port city but now the view is of tilled fields and pomegranate trees glowing amber in their autumn foliage.  The silted Meander River has provided fertile land for the modern times.

Columns of Priene

Eileen in front of the Columns

View over the Meander Valley

Finally we reach Ephesus, one of the great cities of the Greco-Roman world.  After 150 years of excavation 82% of the city still remains unearthed.  The Lonely Planet guide devotes over ten pages to the site and says you should allow 1½ to 2 hours to explore.  Bob and I spent over 5 hours there and could have stayed longer if our legs and the light would have allowed.  The highlights were the Library of Celsus, the third largest in the ancient world and architecturally exceptionally beautiful and the Terraced Houses of the wealthy locals with wonderfully restored frescos and mosaics.

Library of Celsus

Statue at the entrance of the Library

Frescos of the Terrace Houses - beats wallpaper!

Mosaic floor

The amphitheatre from Harbour Way

Curetes Way towards the Library

Also at Ephesus is the Church of St Mary.  Mary spent her last years in Ephesus.

Church of St Mary

Pretty bird (rufus throated thrush?) resting on 2000 year old drainage pipe

The next day we drove 4 hours east to Pamukkale.  This is a fairytale place with a mountainside of brilliant white calcite travertines and powder blue thermal pools.  On the plateau behind these travertines lies the ancient city of Hierapolis.  Once again Bob and I spent hours exploring only stopping when our energy and the light faded.

Looking down on travertines to Pamukkale

More travertines

Paragliders over the calcite hills

Couldn't get enough of these

Reliefs from the theatre of Hierapolis

Main Street Hierapolis

Rows of columns

Some autumn colour amongst the ruins

Northern necropolis

Actors on film set at Hierapolis

It was a great road trip.  Turkey is so littered with ancient ruins we could spend years and only see a fraction of them.  We thought we might be ruined out having seen so many in the past months but they still excite and amaze us.

Back to the marina for two weeks doing a few maintenance chores on Songster then we are off to Eastern Europe and beyond.