ISTANBUL:
After flying from Seattle to Newark to Frankfurt and finally landing in Istanbul a taxi driver brought us to the Hotel Empress Zoe, our first stop on our tour of Turkey.
ISTANBUL:
The hotel is a charming older building remodeled to create a variety of pleasant rooms, run by an American expatriate. It is located on a quiet street a short walk from the most popular tourist destinations in Istanbul. The staff was extremely knowledgeable and helpful.
ISTANBUL:
In nice weather you can eat breakfast in the lovely enclosed garden.
ISTANBUL:
The view from the hotel roof included the ruins of the old hamam (Turkish bath) next door and the minaret of the neighborhood mosque. In the distance you can glimpse the waters of the Bosporus.
ISTANBUL:
Turn left, and you’ll catch a glimpse of Hagia Sophia in the distance.
ISTANBUL:
Continue turning left and you catch a glimpse of the magnificent domes and minarets of the Blue Mosque rising above the nearby Four Seasons Hotel (the yellow building on the right with the red roof, built inside a former prison).
HAGIA SOPHIA:
We had walked around the historic heart of Sultanahmet on the evening we landed.On the morning of September 17, we set out to explore Hagia Sophia (“Saint Sophia” or “Holy Wisdom”). [In Turkish it’s called Ayasofya; Turkish spellings will be given in parentheses throughout this site.]
HAGIA SOPHIA:
This famous domed church was built by designs by Anthemios of Tralles and Isidoros of Miletus at the orders of the famous Emperor Justinian (527-565 CE). It remained perhaps the most imposing church in Christendom until the Renaissance, and it contained the largest dome in the world during that period.
HAGIA SOPHIA:
The four minaret spires were added when Mehmet II, Muslim conqueror of Byzantium, converted the church to a mosque in the 15th century.
HAGIA SOPHIA:
In 1935 Ataturk converted the church into a museum and work has continued for decades to restore the interior decoration. Many of the church’s riches had been carried off by the Venetians in the infamous Fourth Crusade, and the mosaics and paintings offensive to Muslim belief were plastered over. The Venetians still keep their spoils, but the Turks have largely restored the covered decorations.
The large round shields are part of the Muslim history of the building, bearing Arabic inscriptions with the names of God, Muhammad, and other important figures in the early history of Islam.
The structures below also date from the Ottoman era.
HAGIA SOPHIA:
ews from the gallery above give a clearer idea of the vast size of the space enclosed.
HAGIA SOPHIA:
The dome soars an amazing 150 feet over the floor.
HAGIA SOPHIA:
When we were there, a quarter of the central dome was obscured by scaffolding being used by restorers working on its mosaic decoration.
HAGIA SOPHIA:
If you are really interested in Byzantine art and architecture, it’s worth buying the extra ticket to visit the lavishly decorated upper gallery.
HAGIA SOPHIA:
Column in the upper gallery.
HAGIA SOPHIA:
Detail of the inlaid stone flooring
HAGIA SOPHIA:
Mosaic of Empress Zoe (1028-1050) and her third husband, Constantine IX Monomachus (1042-1055) surrounding Christ, commemorating their gifts to the church. She holds a list of donations and the emperor, a bag of gold. It is thought that the mosaic was originally commissioned by Zoe’s first husband, Romanus II Argyrus (1028-1034), who paid for extensive repairs to the church. Evidently his head and name were replaced with those of her two successors, both of whom married the royal widow.
This is the Zoe after whom our hotel was named.
HAGIA SOPHIA:
Virgin and Child between Emperor John II Comnenus (1118-1143) and his wife Irene in the same pose as the Empress Zoe mosaic just opposite it.
HAGIA SOPHIA:
Hagia Sophia also contains several fine Medieval frescos. This image of Christ enthroned is painted in the lunette over the imperial doorway leading into the interior of the church. In the circles on either side are busts Mary and the Archangel Gabriel. The figure on the left is often identified as Leo VI the Wise (886-912) bowing before Christ.
Such royal self-portraits were a way of glorifying the Emperor’s power and wealth while simultaneously showing his piety, and were common in both the eastern and western churches.
HAGIA SOPHIA:When Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque, an elaborate mihrab indicating the direction worshippers should pray to face Mecca was erected at a slight angle to the church altar.
HAGIA SOPHIA:
Looking out of an upper gallery window one sees the subsidiary domes of Hagia Sophia in front, and in the distance, the Blue Mosque.
BLUE MASQUE:
The Blue Mosque was designed by Sedefkar Mehmet Agha and built at the orders of Sultan Ahmet I in the 17th century. His goal was to rival the beauty of the nearby Hagia Sophia. Multiple minarets are not rare in Ottoman Turkish architecture, but the Blue Mosque is unusual in having six. Its proper name is “Sultan Ahmet Mosque.”
BLUE MASQUE:
View from the the gateway through the courtyard to the facade of the mosque itself. On the lower right is the fountain used for ritual cleansing before worship. Non-worshipping tourists are admitted free of charge (as is true of most mosques) outside of times of prayer. The tourist entrance is around the side, in the direction of the minaret in this photo.
BLUE MASQUE:
Another view of the fountain in the courtyard, with one of the six minarets in the background.
BLUE MASQUE:
This displays some of the exquisite tiling on the upper level which gives the Blue Mosque its name.
BLUE MASQUE:
Two views (previous photo and this one) of portions of the main floor of the interior. The hanging lights would have originally been fed with oil.
BLUE MASQUE:
Detail view of the famous blue tilework.
BLUE MASQUE:
The interior of the great dome. The vertical wires support the lamps. The space is luminous, open. Despite its imposing size, the interior of the Blue Mosque gives a great impression of clarity. The rich ornamentation doesn’t encrust it like some 17th-century European churches, but embellishes its grand, noble lines.
TOPKAPI PALACE:
Istanbul’s three top attractions are all close together in Sultanahmet. As you look out the gate to the grounds of the Topkapi Palace you can catch a glimpse of Hagia Sophia across the way. The Ottoman Sultans lived in splendid luxury in the Topkapi Palace 1453-1839. The complex grew and was redecorated over the years, evolving into something like the Forbidden City in Beijing, China: a fantastic world where autocratic rulers lived in splendid isolation from the subjects of their vast empire.
TOPKAPI PALACE:
Today tourist groups throng the palace, but we opted for an expensive private tour guide and had most of the rooms of the harem (imperial residential quarters) to ourselves between the groups that were admitted at half-hour intervals. Guides’fees can often be divided between the members of a party, so to save money you can try to assemble a group of a half-dozen or so like-minded folks to hire a guide. The trained and offically licensed guides wear laminated credentials around their necks and hang around just outside the Palace entrance.
TOPKAPI PALACE:
The Palace grounds are a pleasant place to rest (and can be entered free). If you have time, visit the three much less crowded stunning museums off to the left of the main entrance, behind the palace. Anyone interested in antiquities will find them fascinating. Unfortunately, we were unable to take pictures in them on the day we visited–next time!
TOPKAPI PALACE:
The exteriors are lovely, but do not prepare you for the magnificence within.
TOPKAPI PALACE:
A courtyard entrance to the Harem.
TOPKAPI PALACE:
The ornate decor of some of the rooms in the Imperial residential quarters is reminiscent of the splendor of Louis XIV’s Versailles; and indeed, some of the later decoration was influenced by European examples.
Both the Byzantines and Ottomans kept their rulers in isolation with their families. The Harem was forbidden to all adult males except the Sultan (the Nubian eunuchs who guarded it were kept outside its doors and passed food and supplies in without entering).
It was no Playboy Mansion, but the Imperial residence. Of course it’s true that most of the Ottoman rulers wildly exceeded the Qur’anic limit of four wives as well as keeping numerous concubines–a fact that endlessly intrigued Europeans.
They never married Turkish women, not wanting to create ambition in rival famiies which might marry into the Imperial line. The consequence was that the later Ottoman sultans were essentially non-Turkish in ancestry.
TOPKAPI PALACE:
But most of the rooms are decorated in traditional Ottoman fashion, with walls lined with tiles using calligraphy and floral designs.
TOPKAPI PALACE:
Traditional Ottoman fashion
TOPKAPI PALACE:
The official audience chamber (Arz Odasi) in the Third Court of the Palace was naturally designed to impress foreign ambassadors.
TOPKAPI PALACE:
But just as magnificent is the Sultan’s private bath.
TOPKAPI PALACE:
Private bath cont.
TOPKAPI PALACE:
We weren’t prepared for the lovely stained-glass windows in the Palace.
TOPKAPI PALACE:
More windows and tiles.
TOPKAPI PALACE:
Even more unusual were these wonderful polychromatic tile botanical designs.
You can–and should–spend hours in the Palace, though groups are moved through the Harem fairly efficiently. The treasury includes among other priceless objects the jeweled dagger made famous in the 1964 film Topkapi.
ISTANBUL:
On our last evening in Istanbul we attended the rather glitzy “Dances of Colors” show, lavishly costumed, with recorded music. Definitely aimed at tourists, but enjoyable, providing samples of Turkish dances ranging from Sufi whirling to belly dance. The traditional regional folk dances were the best.
ISTANBUL:
We also enjoyed other sights in Istanbul not represented in these photographs, including the Museum of Turkish & Islamic Arts (Türk ve Islam Eserleri Müzesi) on the other side of the Hippodrome near the Blue Mosque. Their gift shop had tasteful and interesting souvenirs we didn’t see elsewhere.
After three days in Istanbul, we began our travels around the country by taking a bus to visit the site of ancient Troy. Coincidentally, we wound up using the Truva (“Troy”) bus line whose corporate symbol is the Trojan Horse.
GELIBOLU:
We drove down the western side of the Bosporus, toward the historic battlefields of Gallipoli (Gelibolu) in World War I, where Turkish leader Kemal Atatürk’s triumphs against the British catapulted him to prominence. Numerous Australians and New Zealanders whose countrymen fought there come to tour the vast national park where the fighting took place. As a result, in this area we were often mistaken for Australians.
Our bus just happened to take a ferry across the Bosporous from the modern town of Gelibolu.
GELIBOLU:
The view from the ferry across the Bosporus to Lapeski. This ferry line wasn’t marked on our map, and we thought we’d landed in Çanakkale, our destination, and started to get off. An alert attended herded us back on–only one of several instances of people voluntarily looking out for us.
CANAKKALE:
Our ferry looked pretty much like these docked just outside our hotel at sunset.
CANAKKALE:
We walked north along the waterfront to the Iskander Pide restaurant for a very taste lunch of grilled meats. Their outdoor dining area looks out over the harbor.
CANAKKALE:
Across the Bosporus is one of two castles created to guard this strategic stretch of water by Mehmet the Conqueror in the 15th century. The corresponding one on the eastern shore–the Çemenlik Kalesi is in Çanakkale itself, but we didn’t manage to find it.
CANAKKALE:
Walking around town, we repeatedly saw two objects on the ubiquitous apartment balconies: Turkish carpets and television satellite dishes. Turkey has a large number of satellite systems which serve the role that cable plays in the U.S.
CANAKKALE:
Çanakkale is a modern town, with plenty of trucks and cars thronging the streets, but we also saw a surprising number of horse-drawn wagons hauling all manner of goods. Here an old woman uses a whip on her animal as it plods along the main thoroughfare of town.
CANAKKALE:
There are plenty of modern stores, but the inhabitants also like to shop at the weekly market set up in the park near the river, where everything from handicrafts to running shoes are sold from open, canvas-covered booths. Herw we see green beans and the favorite national vegetable: eggplant. Some restaurants offered a half-dozen different eggplant dishes.
TROY:
The main reason toursts come to Çanakkale is to tour the nearby site of ancient Troy (Truva). Most historians now agree that this mound of rubble, formerly called “Hisarlik,” was probably the location called “Troy” by Homer in his epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey.
The windy plain on which the battles of the Trojan War would have been fought, if it was a real historical event, are visible behind Baris, as well as green fields that now cover what used to be the salt water. Local rivers have silted up at their mouths, leaving Troy now stranded far from the waters of the Dardanelles.
TROY:
Some argue that the site was never a true city, but more of a fortress and trading center. Whatever its history, Troy was inhabited from a very early date, and no fewer than nine different levels of construction can be distinguished. You enter the site by these slanted walls–good at withstanding earthquakes–from Troy VI (1700-1250 BCE).
TROY:
You can see the gaping trenches left by Heinrich Schliemann, the famous German mid-19th-century amateur archeologist who first established the identity of Troy in modern times by borrowing drastically into the site and pillaging the riches he found there to send back to Germany. His pioneering work was important, but crude by today’s standards, and did a great deal of damage to the site. Modern explorations continue on a more modern scientific basis, demonstrating that the layers he thought were Homeric were in fact far older.
TROY:
Modern explorations continue on a more modern scientific basis, demonstrating that the layers he thought were Homeric were in fact far older. This section of a 1988 excavation has the various layers helpfully labeled.
TROY:
These are the foundations of ancient stone houses built in Troy I (3000-2500 BCE), with the battle plain in the background.
TROY:
Ramp into the city, Troy II (2500-2300 BCE).
TROY:
Principal (eastern) entrance of Troy VI (1700-1250 BCE).
TROY:
Sanctuary, Troy VIII (1000-85 BCE).
Xerxes sacrificed 1000 oxen here on his way to conquer Greece (480 BCE),
TROY:
The most recent layer excavated so far is Troy IX (54 BCE-600 CE), built by the Romans. This is their Odeum, a small theater for musical performances.
TROY:
Carved coffer ornaments, the top one stained with water and a leaf, from the ruins of the ceiling of the Temple of Athena.
TROY:
Tourists love posing in this hokey Trojan Horse at the entrance to the site, replica of a probably mythical artifact (that’s Paula’s head sticking out of the rearmost window).
TROY:
Near the site of Troy I snapped this shot of olives growing on a tree overhead.
TROY:
Ripening olives from later in the trip.
ÇANAKKALE MUSEUM:
The Çanakkale Museum in rather scruffy surroundings is itself quite lovely, with an impressive small collection.
ÇANAKKALE MUSEUM:
In the courtyard outside chunks of antique marble lie around looking as if they had just come from the sculptor’s shop.
ÇANAKKALE MUSEUM:
The figures on this tomb are not angels, but Erotes (“Cupids” in Latin).
BERGAMA:
The Hotel Anil is a pleasant modern building, but our bed’s mattress felt more like box springs.
It took a long time to check out and we missed our bus because the clerk tried to charge us millions of dollars for our room. We had to struggle mightily to make her understand that the dollar was more like the Euro than like the Turkish lira–a reminder of how rare American tourists are in Turkey.
BERGAMA:
Modern Bergama reveals its charms slowly. The sidewalks are crumbling and the streets dusty. The maps in the Lonely Planet guide were inadequate when we came to various wedge-shaped intersections in search of the recommended “Pergamum Restaurant” (bear right at the point of each wedge to stay on the main drag, and look for it on the left-hand side of the street if you’re heading toward the Acropolis).
The restaurant is contained in a remodeled Ottoman house.
BERGAMA:
The dining room of the restaurant is a roofed-over former courtyard, with a fountain in the center. The place was empty and looking a little forlorn when we showed up; but the waiter was very friendly, and the food fabulous. Staff and friends were watching a Turkish folk music special on TV.
We liked the Pergamum Restaurant so much we ate there twice, inviting a woman traveling by herself who was staying at our hotel to join us.
BERGAMA:
The restaurant cat looking up the appropriate greeting in Paula’s Turkish phrase book.
BERGAMA:
aglam Restaurant no. 2 provided us with a tasty lunch. “Kebap” means “shish-kebabs”–skewered meat chunks, always grilled to order, so be prepared to wait a bit. “Pide” is “pita” and is pronounced the same way. If you like gyros you’ll like pides.
BERGAMA:
Climb uphill into the Ottoman part of town to explore the streets lined with colorfully painted wooden and plaster houses.
BERGAMA:
More colorfully painted doorways.
BERGAMA:
Many of the old wooden houses have fallen into decay.
BERGAMA:
Most people prefer to live in modern concrete-block apartment buildings; but the government offers subsidies for those who can afford to restore an Ottoman house like these.
BERGAMA:
While we were walking around old Ulu, the little girl in this picture said “Hello, Hello,” as many kids will when they see tourists; but she was unusual in being willing to actually have a conversation. She was in the park with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Demirer, who had put their evening tea tray down on an antique column in front of their house and were enjoying the evening air with the children.
Although we could only piece together fragments of Turkish with a phrase book and only the little girl spoke any English, they invited us to join them for tea, and we spent a delightful twenty minutes visiting with gestures, smiles, and occasional words that made sense to both sides. It was one of the nicest experiences of our trip.
ASCLEPION:
The ancient city of Pergamum first became famous because of its temple to Aesculapius, the Greek god of healing. It prospered under the famous physician Galen (131-210 CE) who was born here and worked as a physician to the city’s gladiators. The grand colonnaded entry to the Asclepion would have been as thronged with visitors seeking healing in ancient times as Lourdes is today.
ASCLEPION:
Details of the columns.
ASCLEPION:
More columns.
ASCLEPION:
The heart of the site was its sacred spring. Visitors would drink from its waters as the first step in their diagnosis.
ASCLEPION:
The outflow is channelled to trickle down the side of stairs going down to the underground corridor which connects it with the Temple of Telesphorus.
ASCLEPION:
The corridor is a classic Roman vaulted tunnel…
ASCLEPION:
…leading to the elaborate arched space of the temple at the other end.
ASCLEPION:
After drinking from the spring, visitors would sleep in the Temple of Telesphorus, expecting dreams that would provide the key to their diagnosis and treatment.
ASCLEPION:
ASCLEPION:
Columns outline the stoa which embraces the heart of the site.
ASCLEPION:
More columns
ASCLEPION:
Numerous stones engraved with Greek inscriptions are arrayed under the columns.
ASCLEPION:
Floral decorations in various designs are scattered on marble fragments nearby.
ASCLEPION:
There is a nicely preserved theater next to the stoa.
ASCLEPION:
The raised stage is new, but the backdrop fragments (the scaena) are original.
ASCLEPION:
The seats have decorative animal legs similar to those we saw in other Roman theaters.
PERGAMUM ACEOPOLIS:
From high on the hill of the Pergamum Acropolis you can look down on the modern town of Bergama.
PERGAMUM ACEOPOLIS:
This is the site from which German archeologists purchased and removed the magnificent Altar of Zeus which is now in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin. At least the tree growing there is pretty.
PERGAMUM ACEOPOLIS:
At the top of the Acropolis is the imposing Temple of Trajan.
PERGAMUM ACEOPOLIS:
Detail of the temple’s columns.
PERGAMUM ACEOPOLIS:
Tourist posing behind a replica of the statue of Trajan found on the site.
PERGAMUM ACEOPOLIS:
The theater at Pergamum is so vast it couldn’t be fit into a single shot; here’s a composite to give some impression of its size.
PERGAMUM ACEOPOLIS:
The most famous building in ancient Pergamon/Pergamum was its library. So many distinguished scholars gathered here that the Egyptian scholars in charge of the great library at Alexandria feared a “brain drain” and decreed a ban on papyrus exports to Pergamum. The scholars here devised a method of writing on animal skins that spread throughout Europe and became known as “parchment”–meaning “from Pergamum.” Not much is left of the library today.
PERGAMUM ACEOPOLIS:
Paula working at the reference desk.
PERGAMUM ACEOPOLIS:
The Roman foundations of the temple are awesomely solid. The pillars on top may have tumbled, but the base of the building isn’t about to slide downhill.
PERGAMUM ACEOPOLIS:
A detail of marble decoration.
RED BASILICA:
At the foot of the Acropolis hill is the so-called “Red Basilica” with its imposing twin towers. This vast brick structure was originally built as a temple to the synthetic late Roman cult of Isis, Serapis, and Harpocrates…
RED BASILICA:
It was viewed as the throne of the Devil by Christians (see Revelation 2:1-7) but later converted by them into a Christian church. With the coming of Isam the tower on the right was converted into a mosque which is still functioning today.
RED BASILICA:
Even without its roof, the building is still imposing.
RED BASILICA:
RED BASILICA:
On the grounds is the headless hollow cult statue depicting Isis on one side (female)…
RED BASILICA:
And Serapis on the other (male). Priests originally channelled their voices up from the altar and out the voice of the sculpture to deliver the word of the gods.
RED BASILICA:
It looks as if at some point the basilica grounds were used for a Jewish cemetery. This headstone dates from the 1870s.
RED BASILICA:
The Jewish star on the right is unmistakable. That makes four religions which have sanctified this spot.
BERGMA CARPET SHOP:
Normally we wouldn’t have photographed or even stared too long at a carpet shop because over-eager dealers would swarm all over us if we did; but this shop opposite the Red Basilica was looking distinctly sleepy in the mid-day sun.
BERGMA MUSEUM:
The Bergama Museum is a wonderful place to visit. We were happy to find it now stays open until 7:00 PM, which made it possible to squeeze in a visit at the end of a day.
BERGMA MUSEUM:
This collection of beautiful Classical capitals is arrayed in the courtyard in front of the museum.
BERGMA MUSEUM:
Flowers at the museum entrance.
BERGMA MUSEUM:
We were repeatedly amazed at the pristine condition of marble fragments which looked like they had just come out of the sculptor’s shop.
This is a leg in the form of a griffin
BERGMA MUSEUM:
And this is another combining images of a dolphin with a duck or swan.
BERGMA MUSEUM:
This mosaic floor is astonishingly intact.
BERGMA MUSEUM:
The original torso of the statue of the Emperor Trajan from his temple on the Acropolis.
BERGMA MUSEUM:
A portrait bust of Alexander the Great
BERGMA MUSEUM:
Unidentified portrait busts.
BERGMA MUSEUM:
Unidentified portrait bust.
BERGMA MUSEUM:
A priestess leads a sacrificial bull to the altar (note the flames atop it).
BERGMA MUSEUM:
This delightful mold turned out little images of a woman dancing with a tambourine and a dog frolicking at her feet.
BERGMA MUSEUM:
A bronze bracelet.
BERGMA MUSEUM:
A sculpture of Aphrodite/Venus holding her traditional shell before her, which evidently served as a fountain, symbolizing her role as the source of life.
BERGMA MUSEUM:
A typical Roman lamp with an erotic scene on it.
BERGMA MUSEUM:
Roman tombs are often decorated with strikingly lively and attractive images.
SELÇUK:
Changing buses in Izmir, we let ourselves be captured by an enthusiastic and friendly hotel tout–the owner of the Hotel Nazar–and wound up on our only really uncomfortable bus of the trip, but decided to stick at least for the first night in Selçuk with the luxurious Hotel Kale Han (“Castle Inn”).
SELÇUK:
We chose the Kale Han partly for its swimming pool, which Paula enjoyed thoroughly.
SELÇUK:
Seeking to save money, we moved to the much cheaper Hotel Nazar, which provided us with almost as nice a room for a fraction of the price, run by a very hard-working and friendly staff made up entirely of family members.
We ran into other tourists who reported that Artemis Guest House (Jimmy’s Place) was a nice place to stay.
We were so plagued by touts for hotels, restaurants, and shops that we finally had to give up the pleasure of strolling around the city. In some places we couldn’t take ten steps without being greeted with “Excuse me, where you are from?” The city is set up to handle far more tourists than it gets these days, and there is an air of desperation about the businesses here.
SELÇUK:
The view from the Hotel Nazar rooftop restaurant to the nearby castle. Note the solar water heaters on almost every rooftop.
SELÇUK:
We managed to get away from the carpet merchants for a stroll into the nearby countryside, where we saw–carpets!
SELÇUK:
On the same walk, we came to the lovely Isa Bey Mosque (1375).
SELÇUK:
One of the windows, looking out from the courtyard.
SELÇUK:
The sinking sun didn’t provide enough light for interior photographs, but the courtyard was delightful.
SELÇUK:
Another courtyard
SELÇUK:
Ottoman tombstones bear headgear representing the status of the person being memorialized.
SELÇUK:
Flowers in the mosque courtyard.
SELÇUK:
Selçuk is a small town. We were reminded of this watching the sun set over the farmland which in ancient times used to be the harbor of Ephesus–now silted up.
EPHESUS:
The main reason people come to Selçuk is to visit nearby Ephesus (Efes). This is one of the largest and most popular archeological sites in Turkey, and can get crowded in summer. Even in late September the crowds were fairly thick.
Many Christian groups tour the area, retracing the footsteps of Paul (“Letters to the Ephesians”). When we went down to breakfast in the Hotel Kale Han on a Tuesday morning we encountered a German group engaged in a private worship service.
Here we saw heavily laden pomegranate trees among the ruins. At the exit, we enjoyed fresh-squeezed pomegranate-orange drinks. Incidentally, Efes beer is the most popular brand in Turkey, advertised everywhere.
EPHESUS:
You have a tough choice here. The site is confusing without a tour guide (the Lonely Planet book recommends you start at the top but then describes the site working up from the bottom–and none too clearly); and a tour guide will want to hurry you through this huge site faster than you may wish to go. We took our time and managed to figure out most of the sights. We talked with other tourists and eavesdropped on tour guides lecturing in English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian. It’s bad form to attach yourself to a tour you haven’t paid for; but occasionally listening in while they’re sharing the space is almost unavoidable. If we had known how complicated the site was we would have purchased a book at the entrance.
EPHESUS:
It’s a safe bet that Paul walked down the Curetes Way. Were the berries growing here then too?
EPHESUS:
Views of the Hercules (Greek Heracles) Gate
EPHESUS:
Note the skin and head of the Nemean lion Hercules slew as one of his famous labors.
EPHESUS:
Winged victory from Gate of Hercules.
EPHESUS:
EPHESUS:
The massive Roman baths required the huge furnaces at night to heat the raised flooring pictured here.
EPHESUS:
Paula was amused to find a stone apparently inscribed with her initials.
EPHESUS:
Paul was amused to find this ad for a prostitute, with the footprint aimed in the direction of her place of business. You can make out a faint but distinctly unflattering portrait of the woman herself on the right.
EPHESUS:
The entrance to the temple of the Emperor Hadrian is ornately decorated.
EPHESUS:
Images like this of Medusa were often put over the entrance to temples to ward off evil, rather like the fierce warrior spirits that guard the entrances to Buddhist temples in Japan.
EPHESUS:
The Fountain of Trajan. Waterworks play a very prominent role on this site.
EPHESUS:
The most spectacular facade in Ephesus belongs to the great Library of Celsus, built in 114 CE. Originally it held some 12,000 volumes.
EPHESUS:
The details around the windows are wonderful.
EPHESUS:
EPHESUS:
Replicas of statues representing various qualities ornament the facade. This depicts Arete (“Virtue”).
EPHESUS:
And this depicts Sophia (Wisdom), with Paula in front.
EPHESUS:
This mosaic is lying out in the open on the site.
EPHESUS:
This sign seems to warn you to watch out for falling tourists as you enter the theater.
EPHESUS:
The vast theater at Ephesus is not only an impressive monument in itself, still used for concerts and other performances, but also features in a notable episode in the Biblical book of Acts (19:23-41). Supposedly local silversmiths who made their living creating images of Cybele (“Diana of the Ephesians”) felt threatened by Paul’s success in converting people to Christianity, robbing them of potential customers. Faced with their protest, he decided not to speak at the theater.
EPHESUS:
View of part of the seating area.
EPHESUS:
From the top of the seating you get a fine view of the scaena and the column-lined road leading to what used to be the harbor before it silted up.
EPHESUS:
The smaller odeum was used for musical and poetic performances, and originally had a roof.
EPHESUS:
Details of the Odeum.
EPHESUS:
Details of the Odeum.
EPHESUS:
The great Temple of Cybele was one of the famous Seven Wonders, filled with riches and a destination for pilgrims from all over the Classical world. Christians, who called the fertility goddess “Diana of the Ephesians,” saw it as a locus of evil, and this is all that remains today. A few fragments are also on display in the British Museum in London.
EPHESUS:
The buds on these poppy plants growing on the site reminded Paul of a shape associated with Cybele.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
In the wonderful Selçuk Museum, the cult image of Cybele stands across from a handsome Roman copy.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
Said handsome Roman copy.
The general scholarly consensus now seems to be that the objects around her chest are neither breasts nor eggs, but the testicles of bulls sacrificed to her. Men were also known to voluntarily castrate themselves in her honor.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
Details of the Roman sculpture of Cybele.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
Note the winged bulls and lions covering much of her body.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
And the bee, symbol of Ephesus, on her flank.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
The museum has a number of impressive Roman portrait busts including emperor Tiberius Aurelius.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
And emperor Marcus Aurelius.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
There are also busts of a couple of imperial wives: Livia Drusilla, wife of Tiberius and mother of Nero.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
And the much less well-known Julia Paula, first wife of the deranged Emperor Elagablalus.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
And I failed to get this fellow’s identity.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
Mythical God Zeus
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
Mythical God Eros (Cupid).
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
The museum has a whole room full of Erotes, including this charming scene of one playing music while another listens, deeply absorbed (or is he asleep?).
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
You don’t often see kissing depicted in Classical art. Here Eros smooches with his beloved Psyche. This is a mixed relationship, doomed to fail; note the different design of their wings: he with his bird wings represents the flesh, she with her insect wings, the spirit.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
Sleeping Eros
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
His mother Aphrodite bounces one Eros on her lap while another reaches up. Multiple Erotes in the same image are fairly common in Classical art.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
But the most famous Eros in the collection is this bronze image of the boy riding on a dolphin (2nd C. CE). Reproductions are for sale all over.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
There are also nice depictions of Aphrodite (Venus) herself, including this sleek torso
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
And one with a strategically positioned shell, one of her principal symbols.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
In this mosaic, Eros displays the body of the sleeping Aphrodite to a lustful satyr.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
Then there’s the phallic agricultural god Priapus who adorned many gardens with his enormous organ inspiring the crops the grow, symbolized here by the harvest bounty balanced on top of the organ that acted as marble fertilizer.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
But by far the most popular exhibit is the tiny image of the similarly well-endowed Bes. Unfortunately, the glass case enclosing him defeated the camera’s auto-focus mechanism. Phallic images like this were very popular all over the ancient world, used as good-luck symbols.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
At the opposite extreme is the sober and notoriously unsexy Socrates (well, Alcibiades and Agathon thought he was cute, but the philosopher urged them to think of higher things). The image was mounted too far away to capture a really detailed image even using zoom.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
The Greeks loved battle scenes on their buildings; this is one of several fragments from the facades of buildings at Ephesus.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
The museum has guessed from the few remaining fragments at the design of an unforgettable scene from the Odyssey in this reconstruction: Odysseus offering the Cyclops Polyphemus wine while his men sharpen a stake at the right which they will poke in his eye after he’s asleep. The original fragments (represented here by the portions in white) are exhibited separately, and don’t make much of an impression until you understand the overall design.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
This image shows the feeding of a sacred snake (pinax) by Hermes, holding his sacred wand (caduceus). Note the flame on the sacrificial altar to the right.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
This very rare tiny ivory carving of soldiers is done in high relief.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
Image from the tombstone of a gladiator. The Romans were entertained by combats involving differently armed (and protected) combatants like this.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
But the Romans weren’t entirely about sex and death. Here are some charming bird-shaped pulltoys.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
A sundial.
SELÇUK MUSEUM:
Finally, how did this refugee from the Seven Dwarfs get here? Is that a Phrygian cap?
PRIENE:
From Selçuk many tourists also take day-tours to other nearby sites down the coast. Priene is for serious antiquity buffs; rich in history but poor in knock-your-eye-out things to see. You need a good guide. Fortunately we had one.
PRIENE:
Priene had a small theater. See that rectangular object the guy with his shirt off is walking toward?
PRIENE:
It’s a clepsydra, or water clock, used to regular public debates. When the dripping water ran out the channel on the left and down the pillar, your speaking time was up. Don’t ask how the water got in; that’s all the guide told us.
PRIENE:
This is a good place to study how columns were constructed. Round slices called drums were fastened together with metal poured into holes drilled in the marble (the metal has long since rusted away or been scavenged in most cases).
PRIENE:
Then the fluting was carved. This is earthquake territory, so in the long run most such buildings tumble.
PRIENE:
One of the things that made Roman civilization great was superior drains. This channel running down the street may look simple; but it’s part of the secret of Roman success.
PRIENE:
This modest house bore a sign indicating that Alexander the Great lived here for a time.
PRIENE:
The only sign of life nearby was this handsome tortoise.
PRIENE:
Alexander had a great view off the edge of a cliff to the sea. Now the land once covered by salt water is planted with alternating fig and olive trees.
PRIENE:
This is the River Meander (Buyuk Menderes), which silted up that plain. Its winding path made it the source of the common word “meander.”
PRIENE:
Every Greek city had a bouleuterion, a council chamber for debate and decision-making.
PRIENE:The one at Priene is unusual in being square rather than round.
PRIENE:
A Byzantine church was built out of marble elements from an earlier building on the site. These are the decorated steps to the pulpit.
DIDYMA:
The second stop on our tour was at Didyma (Didim), site of the world’s largest Classical temple, built to honor Apollo. Compare the size of the tourists with the huge pillars next to them. The temple was never given a roof, and actually never completed entirely. This is just the entrance–the front porch, if you will.
DIDYMA:
This guardian Medusa looked more worried than frightening.
DIDYMA:
Visitors came here seeking advice from an oracle much like the more famous one at Delphi. Priests would carry the queries of the worshipers from the porch through one of two tunnels to the interior of the temple.
DIDYMA:
View from the interior of the temple back toward the entrance, with the two tunnels on either side of the vast staircase. Archeologists figure the walls were once twice as high as they are now. To the right you can make out the foundations of the old inner sanctum, a temple-within-a-temple where the actual fortune-telling took place. Priestesses inhaled smoke and delivered oracles which were interpreted by priests, who delivered the word to visitors.
Our guide passed on an entertaining tradition: supposedly the priests always wrote down in the archives the opposite answer to the one they delivered to the visitor. If you were disappointed by the failure of your prophecy and came back to complain, they would say you must have misunderstood or forgotten, and display the contrary advice written down in the archives.
DIDYMA:A sign on the site showing the original appearance of the inner temple and the height of the exterior walls.
DIDYMA:
Fragments of the ornate carving that once topped the walls now lie on the ground.
DIDYMA:
This griffin is particularly spectacular.
DIDYMA:
The sacred well at the center of the site is not too attractive at present, but at least visitors won’t fall in.
DIDYMA:
Roman plumbing: a joint for distributing water into various channels.
DIDYMA:
One last view of the outer porch.
MILETUS:
Our guide book warned about high-priced restaurants set up to serve tourist groups nearby. Lunch was included in the tour, so we don’t know what it cost; but we would have gladly paid a handsome sum for this lavish spread. These are just a few of the delicious dishes offered at the huge buffet. That white stuff is garlicky sautéed green beans smothered in high-fat, high-density yogurt. Yum!
MILETUS:
Little is left of the famed ancient city of Miletus except its vast Roman theater.
MILETUS:
This photographer was busy snapping shots of his models in cocktail dresses among the theater seats.
MILETUS:
The stage area.
MILETUS:
A very Roman subject: little Cupids as gladiators killing animals in the way real gladiators must have done in this very theater.
MILETUS:
The vomitorium which spewed masses of departing spectators out of the seats at the end of shows.
MILETUS:
Theater seats. The curved bases helped to focus the sound in the vast theater.
PAMUKKALE:
Our next stop was a natural wonder, cliffs and pools of Pamukkale, coated in white calcium by mineral springs that flow over them. Posters for Turkey make this look like a vast area, but it’s really fairly small, as this distant shot showing about a goodly portion of the site makes clear.
Access to the site is limited to those willing to walk barefoot over the often painfully rough calicified surface. A long line of Europeans in bikinis wincing their way along the rocks is reminiscent of Medieval penitents inching on their knees along the streets of Campostella to the cathedral.
PAMUKKALE:
Close-up of the cliff face in back of one of the abandoned hotel pools. Note the way the calcium deposits are smothering the bushes part way up.
PAMUKKALE:
Details of the deposits.
A still-growing bush being coated in calcium deposits suggests how rapidly the stuff builds up.
PAMUKKALE:
We were reminded of the similarly white cliffs of the Athabasca Ice Fields in Jasper National Park, Alberta, which we had seen just a few weeks earlier.
PAMUKKALE:
The most famous feature of the site are these natural pools, filled with hauntingly pale blue water.
PAMUKKALE:
The cliff near the top, showing part of the Roman ruins of Hieropolis above.
PAMUKKALE:
People take special hikes at sunset to catch the eerie glowing of the cliffs in the dusk.
PAMUKKALE:
Sunset over the cliffs viewed from the top.
HIEROPOLIS:
The Classical-era city of Hieropolis was built to take advantage of the mineral baths at Pamukkale. It sprawls, widely scattered, over the plateau on top of the cliff, behind the Pamukkale Termal (the modern complex offering swimming and soaking pools under a roof, surrounded with expensive ice-cream and souvenir stands).
This is the Hieropolis theater. Unfortunately we made it to this part of the site too late in the day to explore much else. To explore Hieropolis thoroughly, you need time and good walking shoes.
HIEROPOLIS:
The scaena of this theater is particularly well preserved.
HIEROPOLIS:
Detail from the scaena.
HIEROPOLIS:
To get some idea of how vast this theater is, look at the tiny figures standing on the rim at the top. It might have held as many as 12,000 spectators when Hieropolis was a thriving city.
HIEROPOLIS:
Among the rubble lying in front of the theater we were intrigued by heart-shaped sections of double twisted columns.
HIEROPOLIS:
The old Roman baths have been reconstructed as a wonderful museum in a series of buildings between the pool and the cliffs. The busloads of tourists mostly head straight for the modern baths, but the museum is definitely worth a visit.
Here the infant god Dionysus is suckled by a goat while Hermes looks on. Note the Dionysian vine leaves spreading overhead. A similar story is told of Zeus, but the label in the museum calls this figure Dionysus.
Much of this sculpture is attributed to the School of Aphrodisas, a brilliant center for such art just south of here. The swirling robes of the woman on the right are typical of their work.
HIEROPOLIS:
A 3rd century Roman ossuary, in which the bones of the departed were interred.
HIEROPOLIS:
Although crudely carved, this is an endearingly lively procession, with a tambourine-playing woman leading the way and the child on the back of a lion playing panpipes.
HIEROPOLIS:
This capital features lions devouring bulls’ heads.
HIEROPOLIS:
This one looks like a Medieval Green Man, symbol of the wild woods, but his image is known to have appeared in ancient Roman art here as early as the 2nd Century CE.
AFRODISIAS:
The ancient city of Aphrodisias (Afrodisias), with a great temple dedicated to Aphrodite, goddess of love, is not often visited by tour groups. The best way for us to get there was to arrange for a taxi to take us from Pamukkale for the two-hour drive south, wait for us while we toured the site, and then take us on to Denizili to catch a bus. Fortunately, Turkish taxis are very cheap by American standards.
Here we are standing in front of the imposing Tetrapylon, the ornamental gateway that greeted visitors headed for the Temple of Aphrodite, whose columns are visible in the background. Most of the monuments at Afrodisias date to the 2nd century CD and later.
AFRODISIAS:
Most archeological sites are rather dusty and rocky, but this one is beautifully landscaped and maintained, thanks to the work of people from New York University. Much later on our trip, in Ankara, we were talking about how much we enjoyed Afrodisias in our hotel when one of the American guests, delighted, told us he was an archaeologist based there.
AFRODISIAS:
Details of the gate.
AFRODISIAS:
The carving details are wonderful.
AFRODISIAS:
This enormous stadium could hold some 30,000 spectators watching athletic events in the Greek era, gladitorial combats in the Roman era.
AFRODISIAS:
Just beside the stadium this recent dig had uncovered a small portion of a previously unknown structure. The archeologist we met told us they were awaiting funding to uncover what they think is probably a large building.
AFRODISIAS:
Unfortunately the old Temple of Aphrodite was disassembled and the materials reworked into a Byzantine Church when Christianity triumphed around 500 CE, so it’s not clear what the original looked like.
AFRODISIAS:
Part of the Baths of Hadrian.
AFRODISIAS:
The small but charming Odeum.
AFRODISIAS:
There’s also a fine theater.
AFRODISIAS:
This shot shows about half the length of the impressive colonnaded pool which ran down the center of the agora.
AFRODISIAS:
The carving on this tomb was never finished, so you can clearly see the technique by which the sculptors drilled rows of holes to outline the shapes and then proceeded to carve using a connect-the-dots technique.
AFRODISIAS:
Another tomb–finished–with lively decoration.
AFRODISIAS:
Here’s the real secret of Roman construction: Legos.
AFRODISIAS:
A Roman tomb.
AFRODISIAS:
Carved ornament based on theater masks.
AFRODISIAS MUSEUM:
The entry to the fine little museum on the site, well worth the extra price of admission. This is amaranth blooming in the courtyard by the entrance.
AFRODISIAS MUSEUM:
The right-hand figure of this relief, with its swirling draperies, demonstrates the sort of technique that inspired 17th-century Baroque artists.
AFRODISIAS MUSEUM:
The cult statues of the mighty Aphrodite show her as an imposing goddess rather than as the sleek plaything she was made into in many Hellenistic sculptures.
AFRODISIAS MUSEUM:
The mighty Aphrodite
AFRODISIAS MUSEUM:
This is displayed in the same area.
AFRODISIAS MUSEUM:
In contrast, here’s a lovely torso in an unusual pose: seated; probably Aphrodite because she was the only goddess routinely depicted nude in Classical art.
AFRODISIAS MUSEUM:
Portrait of a priest who served the Temple of Aphrodite.
AFRODISIAS MUSEUM:
Another portrait of a priest who served the Temple of Aphrodite.
AFRODISIAS MUSEUM:
We were familiar with Roman portrait busts, but this full-length portrait of a woman surprised us.
AFRODISIAS MUSEUM:
This sculpture is of the Muse of tragedy, Melpomene, with a tragic actor’s mask beside her.
AFRODISIAS MUSEUM:
The pin-headed portrait of Flavius Palmatus attracts attention; did the sculptor perhaps start with a different head and carve it down to make the new one?
AFRODISIAS MUSEUM:
At least he has a head, unlike this fellow.
AFRODISIAS MUSEUM:
A delicate architectural detail from the corner of a building.
We had a bus to catch but we were hungry and there is little to eat on the site. We persuaded our taxi driver to take us down the road to Chez Mestan, where the owner agreed to assemble some tasty mezes of our choosing into rolled-up pitas (pides) which made a great take-away lunch.
ANTALYA:
This view of the Antalya harbor shows the tour boats tied up at the dock below, the spectacular waterfall on the cliffside opposite (look just above the tip of the bush, left), and some of the many hotels that jam this huge tourist center. Germans and other Europeans seeking a seaside getaway at a reasonable price flock here, and Antalya offers the sort of up-scale shopping you’d find on the French Riviera.
ANTALYA:
The Antalya trolleys are covered with depictions of tourist spots. Recognize the gate from Afrodisias on the front of this one?
ANTALYA:
We took a taxi from the distant otogar to our destination, the charming old part of Antalya called Kaleici. The driver could barely squeeze his way through the narrow streets as he searched out our destination. On foot, we could approach our hotel through the Roman Hadrian’s Gate.
ANTALYA:
We stayed at the charming Villa Perla, whose entrance is shown in this little painting we bought from a local watercolor artist just down the street, Omer Gungor.
We had chosen Antalya for three days of relaxation, and it proved a perfect choice. We were alarmed when we arrived that night to find the booking agency had never forwarded our reservation and that the hotel was full; but Perla, the owner, welcomed us warmly with a free glass of wine and volunteered her own room for us.
ANTALYA:
Villa courtyard
ANTALYA:
Excavating the villa courtyard, Perla uncovered the Classical capitals now displayed in the courtyard (lower right). They were documented and registered with the local museum but reside here for the enjoyment of her guests.
ANTALYA:
One of Paula’s main goals in Antalya was to go swimming in the Mediterranean.
ANTALYA:
There are no big beaches in Antalya itself–you have to travel outside the city for those; but this pocket-sized one is run by a cliffside hotel not far from Villa Perla and made her happy.
ANTALYA:
The Kaleichi Museum just down the street has among other exhibits these displays depicting the traditional Ottoman coffee ceremony in the women’s quarters of a well-to-do home
ANTALYA:
Cont…
ANTALYA:
Paula wanted to spend her birthday in and on the water, and local boats were not offering very interesting outings; so we bought a tour from a travel agent which required a long taxi drive to Kemer, and set out on a boat packed mostly with Russians and Western Europeans which stopped in various places to let people go over the side and swim.
Above, the view from the boat traveling west along one of the few stretches of coast that wasn’t lined with luxury hotels.
ANTALYA:
Here’s Paula enjoying the water by some rugged islands on our first stop. We were surprised to find no beaches were available, so to do this sort of thing you either need to be a strong swimmer or wear a flotation device.
PHASELIS:
Part of the planned tour was a visit to the ruins of ancient Phaselis, founded in the fourth century BCE as a port for shipping timber, rose oil, and perfume. Here’s the ancient harbor.
PHASELIS:
There’s a small theater at the site. The many green trees and the surrounding water give Phaselis a romantic air.
PHASELIS:
No Roman city was complete without public baths.
PHASELIS:
The baths have mosaic floors just sitting out in the weather.
PHASELIS:
The most spectacular sight in Phaselis is the last leg of the aqueduct which supplied the city.
PHASELIS:
This is the only shot we managed out the bus window. It gives a glimpse of the spectacular mountains between Antalya and Konya.
PHASELIS:
Half an hour into this trip our bus stopped for the routine bus washing at a small roadside restaurant, where Paul enjoyed a European bottled peach juice but was disconcerted to discover that it was bottled by Coco-Cola. Paula fell in love with the national snack food: göleme, a sort of large crepe folded into a square around cheese and other flavorings and fried in butter. You see signs advertising them as commonly in Turkey as you do signs for burgers in the U.S. Traditionally they are served with a salty yogurt drink called iran. We saw a woman cooking them here.
We stretched our legs along a nearby country lane where we spotted this row of peppers hanging up to dry–a common site around the countryside, and even in cities.
PHASELIS:
At another bus stop we spotted this ethnic exhibit: a gypsy cart and traditional tent. Blue plastic seems to be modern equivalent for the migrant workers (mostly women) we saw picking cotton in the fields. Note the ad for Lipton tea.
KONYA:
Konya is a huge city, and it takes a long time to get from the otogar by taxi (even if your driver is honest–we ran into both kinds in Konya). A very inexpensive green trolley can take you from your bus to downtown, but it’s slow and crowded. A good choice for backpackers with plenty of time; but we took a taxi.
We chose the luxurious Hotel Bera since we were going to spend only one night. Here’s the view out our hotel window at dusk.
Konya is a conservative city and not very friendly to tourists (whenever possible, get the hotel staff to summon a cab for you). Most women cover their hair here, unlike in the areas we visited earlier, and many also veiled their faces. We were stared at as oddities on the street and many of the people we dealt with were as grouchy as a New York City cabdriver.
KONYA:
There’s lots of architecture worth looking at in Konya if you have the time and energy to seek it out. We were short on time, and inclement weather put a damper on things, but we did manage explore a few sights. This is the Sultan Selim mosque, created 1563-1564 by the great architect Sinan, who also designed the more famous Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, which we visited (but couldn’t photograph) at the end of our trip.
KONYA:
The niche with microphone where the muezzin broadcasts his call to prayer five times a day. The chant they sing may be carried electronically these days, but it must be performed live.
KONYA:
Beautifully decorated domes are a trademark of Sinan’s work.
KONYA:
KONYA:
But the main reason we had come to Konya was to visit the shrine of the great 13th-century Sufi poet and founder of the whirling derivishes, Celaleddin Rumi (Mevlana). As we were walking toward the Mevlana Museum which houses his body and memorabilia, we were greeted by a very enthusiastic young man who introduced himself as a sufi who had spotted us a fellow seekers after truth. He went out of his way to demonstrate “Turkish hospitality” as he kept calling it, even driving us back to our hotel that evening to save the cost of a taxi; but he grew surly the next day when we declined to visit his carpet shop, though we explained we had only a very short time left to see the sights we had come to Konya to see.
But we shall always be grateful that he tipped us off that Rumi’s birthday was to be celebrated that very night, September 30, in the garden of the Museum.
KONYA:
This is the view from the other side of the Museum grounds, showing the rose garden where Rumi met the Sufi mentor who inspired many of his finest poems and changed his life: Shams (Mehmet Semseddin Tebrizi). The area where the observance ritual was performed is immediately to the left in this picture.
The green dome marks the location of Rumi’s Tomb.
KONYA:
That night we returned to the Museum grounds and joined an audience of maybe two hundred people, mostly composed of local Sufis, but with a healthy sprinkling of other tourists..An orchestra and chorus in traditional garb performed, then the dervishes paced out gravely in long black cloaks and began the ceremony, which is not simply wild, uncontrolled whirling, but a very measured, quite beautiful succession of movements. At a certain point, their outer cloaks laid aside, the dervishes begin to spin ecstatically, seeking union with God.
KONYA:
At a certain point the dervishes gather in small groups and lean together, reconnecting with each other, before going on to another round of whirling.
KONYA:
Elsewhere whirling is presented as an entertainment in dance recitals and even in one outdoor cafe in Istanbul. We were very fortunate to stumble on this relatively rare occasion where we could experience the real thing. There was no obvious publicity for this ceremony; our hotel staff had no idea it was Rumi’s birthday.
KONYA:
This is the famous carved door to the Seminary of the Slender Minaret (Ince Minare Medresesi), now the Museum of Wood and Stone Carving, worth a visit. Unfortunately our little cardboard camera couldn’t do justice to the exhibits inside, .
KONYA:
We were able to pay only a flying visit to the Serafettin Mosque (rebuilt in the 17th century), not far from the Mevlana Museum.
KONYA:
We went on to have a nice lunch at the large, clean cafeteria (with free bathrooms!) in the otogar before catching our bus for Cappadocia (Kapadokia).
CAPADOCCIA:
Capadoccia is famed for its weird geology, much more extensive than the white cliffs of Pamukkale. Deep layers of volcanic ash settled into easily carved tufa which has offered shelter to people creating cave-homes from prehistoric times. During the early Christian era it became a popular retreat for hermits and later for other Christians seeking refuge from persecution by Romans and–later–by Muslims.
The heart of this area is the little tourist town of Göreme, where in recent years numerous “cave hotels” have been carved into the rock. There were lots of Christian pilgrims coming here in groups, and even more young people seeking an interesting trip on a budget. There are many real bargains if you shop around. One place was even offering bunkbeds for $3 per night.
CAPADOCCIA:
The rather phallic-looking “fairy castles” near Göreme were formed when the layer of molten lava which solidified on top of the tufa eroded at a slower rate than the underlying ash deposits.
CAPADOCCIA:
Detail from the Fairy Castles
CAPADOCCIA:
The interior of an ancient pillared hall, now sliced open by erosion, in downtown Göreme.
CAPADOCCIA:
We collect “Pullman” photos from around the world. George Pullman’s name has been applied not only to the Pullman railway cars he invented and to our home town, but to numerous vehicles and hotels around the world. Our Capaddocia tour van was labeled “Pulman” (Turkish shuns silent letters).
CAPADOCCIA:
Our tour also provided a lift to a young hiker looking to walk the length of the beautiful Ihlhara Valley. Our tour took us through about half its length.
CAPADOCCIA:
The valley is pockmarked with monastic retreats, churches, and dovecotes carved into the rock. The former were created to capture droppings, used as fertilizer. Our tour guide took us into only one of the churches, and led a pretty fast pace through the valley. It was obvious why someone might want to hike alone, unguided, though we had a pleasant time and a nice lunch at an outdoor restaurant in the valley where a charming little boy offered Paula a flower for no apparent reason other than he liked her.
CAPADOCCIA:
Despite the skepticism of the Lonely Planet folks, local guides insist the cones of Selime were indeed used in a very brief sequence set on Tatooine in the first Star Wars film. They acknowledge that the main footage featuring the Jawas was shot in Tunisia, but claim the initial shots of them emerging from their cave homes were made here.
CAPADOCCIA:
The underground city of Derikuyu (one of many in the area) was fascinating to tour, but no claustrophobics need apply. Even with the tunnels enlarged for bulky modern tourists, it’s cramped going much of the time, and impossible to capture in a photograph.
You climb through five levels of corridors, seeing rooms which were used as kitchens, bedrooms, schools, churches, and for all manner of other purposes for which they were used by months at a time by refugees from the villages up above in time of trouble.
The gratings cover ancient airshafts. Smoke from their fires was routed through slanted tunnels to direct searchers away from their true location.
CAPADOCCIA:
We enjoyed walking around the Agzikarahan Caravansaray (Kervanseray), a stopping point for merchants on the old Silk Route where caravans would settle down for extended periods, engaging in trade. Smaller caravansarays were sprinkled a day’s journey apart all along the route, punctuated periodically by these more impressive fortified trading centers. The carved door is handsome, and we admired the soaring vaults inside; but there’s not much to see here unless you want to spend time in the carpet shop.
CAPADOCCIA:
Be warned: tours routinely inflate the advertised length of tours in this region by alloting half an hour for sites like this most people will be ready to leave in ten minutes. As a result, the sunset-viewing scheduled for the end of a “day-long” tour is likely to be dropped.
CAPADOCCIA:
A former convent; on the right, the decoration on one of the site’s many churches whose exteriors have been worn away by the elements. You don’t need an expensive tour to visit cave churches: the most beautifully preserved are right here in the Outdoor Museum.
CAPADOCCIA:
In some, you’ll note that pious Muslim visitors scratched out the eyes of the painted figures so that they no longer violated the proscription against images of living beings.
CAPADOCCIA:
One of the larger churches, in cross-section.
ANKARA:
Ankara is the capital of modern Turkey, full of official buildings and modern businesses, but there is an ancient historic district centered on the old walled castle of Hisar, and that’s where we headed, to stay in the wonderful Angora House Hotel. When we thought we had lost our train ticket back to Istanbul, the extremely kind hotel owner went to extraordinary lengths to find us a berth on what was officially a full sleeper car. We were sorry to be spending only one night in the hotel, though walking around Ankara proved frustrating.
ANKARA:
We also had two excellent meals in Hisar at nearby restaurants, the Kale Washington (the name inspired by the visit of a long-ago American diplomat) and the Zenger Pasa Konagi, where the musicians shown above played traditional tunes right next to our table. The view of night-time Ankara spread out below us was pretty.
ANKARA:
The market just outside the fortress gates.
ANKARA:
Here’s where we really missed the digital camera. This wonderful double-headed knotted dragon will have to stand for the whole collection. Their shop has wonderful souvenirs, including great t-shirts and an excellent paperback book with colored photos of all the most important exhibits, well worth buying if you care about such things.
ANKARA:
The night train from Ankara to Istanbul is cheaper by far than a nice hotel room, and reasonably comfortable as these things go; but neither of us managed to get much sleep in the rocking train inside the bunks formed when the beds were unfolded. Other people seem to love it. This is the only long-distance train recommended for travelers in Turkey. The hilly geography of the country makes buses far more practical. Internal air travel is expensive and inconvenient.
BOSPORUS:
One of the things we did when we got back to Istanbul (besides doing the bulk of our souvenir shopping) was take a day trip up the Bosporus toward the Black Sea on board a city ferry which provides a superior tour at a much lower price than private companies.
BOSPORUS:
Our last shot: the Black Sea in the distance. There was constant ship traffic through here as we watched from the site of an old castle high on a cliff overlooking the strait, listening to the bells on a small herd of cows wandering around the site.
We’re usually sorry to leave the countries we visit; but we were particularly taken by Turkey, and were by this time already thinking about what we’d like to do when we returned.
Turkey is a fascinating country with an inexhaustibly rich culture and traditions. The world’s first known agricultural villages have been discovered there. Over 4,000 years ago it was home to the ancient Hittites, mentioned in the Bible but revealed by other sources to have been a mighty civilization able to defeat the Egyptians in battle. Much of the western part of it was what we call “Ancient Greece” and later made up an important part of the Roman Empire.
When Rome fell in the West, its culture carried on straight through the Middle Ages in the East as the Byzantine Empire centered on the city of Constantinople, later known as Byzantium, and now as Istanbul. When its last remnant was conquered in 1453 by the Turks, it became an important center for Muslim culture, persisting as the heart of the Ottoman Empire until World War I. The modern nation of Turkey was created under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who provided an influential model for social reform for other Muslim nations.
Again and again the student of history finds Turkey at center stage, and Turkish culture is rich in art, architecture, poetry, philosophy, and all sorts of scholarship. And the food is delicious!
For the American visitor, Turkey is a delight. Turkish hospitality and friendliness makes most people feel welcome. Americans have been rare in the past several years, and we were often mistaken for Australians come to visit the Gallipoli battleground from World War I, or for touring Germans. During our three-week tour, not one Turk we spoke with expressed the slightest hostility to America or Americans, and we were the recipients of many acts of hospitality and generosity.
At least in the western region most frequented by tourists, secularism is prevalent and religious extremism is rare. Few women cover their heads. The call to prayer rings out from mosques all over five times a day (beginning at dawn), but with about as much effect as the ringing of the church bells in Rome.
Costs for travel, food, and lodging are extremely low. High inflation makes life hard for the Turks, but the sinking value of the Turkish lira against other currencies makes Turkey a bargain for outsiders.
Join us for a photo tour of some of the most famous sites in Turkey and learn more about this fascinating land.
For a searchable database of downloadable higher-resolution copies of most of these pictures (plus some that aren’t in this tour–go to the Washington State University Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections site at http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/holland/masc/xworldciv.html and click on “Turkey.”
