Afrodisias

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Today our main destination was Afrodisias. It was quite cool in the garden as we ate our brekky. We also handed over quite a large bundle of laundry and browsed the collection of tablecloths, cushion covers and other items they had for sale at the Venus. At 9:30 a minibus arrived to collect us for our trip. There were a total of ten of us in the little van. The last two on were a young Korean couple, and we were one seat short. The driver pulled out a little folding stool for the guy to sit on. Didn't look too stable so we offered to squeeze up in the back row so that he could squeeze in. Lucky they were both quite slim!

Off we went on our journey, which took about 80 minutes, back into Denizli, then south on the same highway we'd come up from Marmaris on, and finally we took a turn to the right and headed roughly east, through a few more villages and finally to our stopping point, where there were a number of buses and minibuses parked and a little souvenir stall and cafe and loos. It was just before 11am and our driver instructed us to meet him back there at 2pm. We jumped in the trailer (with seats and a roof) behind the shuttle tractor for the short trip to the site entrance, where we bought our tickets and passed through the turnstiles.

Lonely Planet was our guide - they recommended we do the loop anticlockwise, which we did and it seemed to work well - while there were a few tour groups around, we seemed to find ourselves most of the time with noone else around! We passed a large collection of stone sarcophagi and other pieces from the excavations and the shops and museum, and took the track to the right that led us to a quite spectacular marble gateway called the tetrapylon, sitting in the middle of a grassy field with the temple of Aphrodite behind. This was one of the places where we had it to ourselves (a group approached from the other direction as we were leaving). The gate has quite elaborate carvings on the top pieces, so we took quite a few photos. It's been reconstructed from 85% original stones.

Next we took the side path across to the stadium. What a place! It's massive (270m long, seated 30,000) and fairly complete - they say it's the best preserved in the classical world. It's quite easy to imagine chariot races or gladiator fights taking place.

We returned to the main track and the Temple of Aphrodite, which was reworked as a basilica (church) in about AD 500. Nearby was the bouleterion (council house) and odeon (small theatre for more intimate performances), with quite a bit of it's marble intact. It was apparently preserved for 1000 years in a bath of mud! Nearby was the bishop's house.

Next main stop was the Hadrianic Baths with a rather lovely statue next to a fountain (dry) out the front. Adjacent to them is the southern agora, in the middle of which was a massive pool and the Portico of Tiberius - there were columns (standing and fallen) everywhere.

Next was the amphitheater, with it's marble stage and columns and backstage area fairly complete. As is often the case, they are working on restoring bits of it so some parts were blocked off but we could climb down through the seating area and walk around the stage and backstage rooms.

Rejoining the loop we came to the site of another grand construction, a small part of which has been reconstructed, called the Sebasteion. This was a temerity to deified Roman emperors and included lots of columns, statues and reliefs, many of which are displayed in the museum and some of which have been reproduced in the reconstructed section. There were also heaps of reliefs of faces of all kinds, which make some great close-ups!

After all that ruin visiting it was very interesting to see a lot of the decorative elements excavated from these variousocations displayed in the museum. All in all, a fascinating place to visit.

After a good 2 1/2 hours taking our time and enjoying this historic place we hopped a tractor shuttle back to our meeting place and were soon on the bus home. On the return trip he took a detour which was apparently a scenic shortcut. Took us on back roads through the hills and villages, with the driver pulling up a couple of times to yell a conversation with nearby villagers.

We were back in Pamukkale about 3:30, and decided to wander up towards the main part of town to find some lunch. Ended up dining at a tiny pide shop - cost us a few lira for a veggie pide and couple of soft drinks.

Next we wandered along the main drag, but down the other end for some different views of the travertines from the bottom. Then we went into the "Natural Park" right below the travertines, which has a lake at the bottom you can walk around but also a bit of the lower edge of the travertines - yet more photos!

After this we cruised the little shops and bought a couple of trinkets and finally wandered back to the Venus Hotel. Did some blogging/reading for a couple of hours and booked the bus to Selcuk for the following morning. For dinner we had fresh local trout - yum!!!

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