In The End It Is Just Rocks

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April 27th 2009

Published: April 27th 2009

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Slowfeet

A Live One

In amongst the sarcophaguses or is that sarcophagi?

Having decided to duck Anzac Day at Gallipoli - all of the hype sounds just a bit too jingoistic and celebratory - we needed to make a large-ish jump over Gallipoli, Cannarkale and Troy and we decided to go directly to Denizli by air. The price of an air ticket was TL110 and a bus would have cost us TL50 plus and taken 12 hours. 45 minutes sounded a lot better. (We will come back to Gallipoli after most of the people have gone.)

When we were quoted 15 euros each for a pick up at Denizli airport to go to Pamukkale at 9.30pm we balked but, on being told transport from the airport to Pamukkale was 'difficult' we eventually agreed. That was a stroke of luck. We arrived at a little after the appointed time to find an airport that boasted no taxis and vey few other cars. No buses whatsoever at this time of night. But our pick up was there and dutifully carted us the 65 km to Denizli and the further 15 or so to Pamukkale. The price started to feel quite reasonable after about 40km.

Denizli is a large textile manufacturing town, modern and

Where Are We

and what is this? They did work it out.

well organised. Its symbol is a rather special rooster. I couldn't find one to take a photo of but I have bought a little pottery whistle thingy that will have to suffice. The surrounding valley is fertile and productive with fruit and nut orchards and some cropping. The tractor of choice - in case anyone is interested - seems to be Massey Ferguson but there are also John Deere, Fiat and a few others around. Tractors are a key transport option for a lot of people from the rural areas and you rarely see one without either a heavy duty trailer or a plough hooked on. Makes me all nostalgic.

We headed for Pamukkale because it is close to Heirapolis and because it has the Travertines in the area. But when we checked in to Mustafa's Pension we were told we could take a trip to Aphrodisias the next day. None of us knew a great deal about the place but the price was OK so we decided to go.

Aphrodisias is an ancient city about 100km from Pamukkale. The first known settlement in the area seems to have been in Neolithic times about 8 thousand years ago

Aphrodisias

Lot of rock. Had to use a little imagination

and settlements were present through the chalk, bronze, copper and iron times but there is little remaining evidence of that. The majority of the remains are of the Greek and Roman buildings constructed from the period 200BC through to about 500AD when the Romans were pushed back by the Goths and others. It is one of the better preserved ancient cities and provides a more gentle introduction to the visitation of ruins than others, primarily because there aren't, or weren't on the day that we were there, quite as many tour buses as we encountered in other places.

We were able to walk around without too much interference from the tours and look at the theatre, which is still pretty much intact - except for the top sections that were removed by the locals trying to develop farming land over the centuries. The theatre, baths, some streets, a temple/church and a large arena are the highlights. The theatre could still be used although there may be some liability issues if the audience was to stand on the wrong rock. The temple was originally developed to honour Aphrodite. She was the Greek goddess of love. Her temple was, of course,

Arena

Now imagine - 30,000 spectators and people in the middle running, jumping, throwing javelins etc etc

set up for all kinds of fun things. The conversion of the place to Christian temple required modifications. Those Christians weren't into that kind of fun, at least not in public. In fact, they were pretty much vandals and went to some considerable effort to deface statues of various gods, apparently having problems with bothh nudity and gods, both male and female. Some statues were very heavily vandalised.

The arena was especially impressive. It seated around 30,000 people in an elliptical arena with doors at each end for the entry of gladiators and other competitors. During Greek times the place would have been used mainly for athletic endeavours. The Romans moved on to more bloodthirsty pursuits with gladiatorial combat.

The museum at Aphrodisias was under renovation when we were there but it does house a good collection of the statues - or more accurately the remains of statues - from the site and is well worth a visit.

Heirapolis is another set of Greek and Roman ruins, this time over the back of the Travertines from Pamukkale. Heirapolis was basically a spa town developed by the Greeks and expanded by the Romans to take advantage of the

Lonely At the Top

Looking for that shot that encapsulates it all

supposedly healing effects of bathing in the waters that bubble out of the ground and which are rich in Calcium Carbonate and other minerals. Heirapolis is much more clearly on the tourist agenda than Aphrodisias and there are large tour groups everywhere. Many of these are from Europe but there were also a few from Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

We had decided on this occasion to hire a guide to show us over Heirapolis. We were told that there wasn't much interpretative signage and that it would be difficult to have a good experience without a guide. Our guide was OK although he lacked a bit of English and some confidence. There was enough interpretative signage for us to have made it OK on our own. I enjoyed wandering around the site and getting a feel for the way that the Greeks and Romans lived. It brings to life a lot of the books that I have read over the years.

The feature of Heirapolis is the baths. There are still pools there that are used by people in much the same way that the Romans used their baths. I have a mild suspicion that the Romans didn't

Heirapolis Theatre

A long way to the stage but you could hear them speak

wear bikinis or budgie smugglers while they were doing their bathing in the medicinal waters though. The mobs of tourists, many Russian if my language recognition skills are operating, got into the waters and had a good swim around. The water was warmer than the air on the day we visited. I stuck my foot in - you never know - but no one else was inclined to take a punt on the medicinal qualities of the waters. It is interesting that so many people seem to think this works when the necropolis, ie cemetery, was the largest part of Heirapolis.

The waters that are in the pools also flow out over the rocks down the hill and, over time, make the Travertines. We were to walk down the Travertines but we had a major storm just as we were about to do so. Water on nice slippery calcified rock down a hill, barefoot because they don't allow shoes? Nope. We got a lift back down the hill and walked up later on to take our photos.

From Pamukkale we took a bus direct to Selcuk, which is close to Ephesus. Apparently, the majority of the tourists go

Olive Press

The olives were put in the pit on the right, pressed in the rings marked and the oil went off down the trough in the rock to a waiting vessel.

to a bigger place nearby. That was a good enough reason for us to make for Selcuk which is a very nice little town. Friendly, pretty quiet and very easy to get around. We stayed at the Nur Pension run by Ali Nur, his wife and his nephew Tomas. (For any from Darwin reading this let it be understood that this was a different Ali Nur to the one we all know. This one was not tall or black, although he was pretty lean.) Tomas met us at the bus station properly dressed in a Wallabies shirt. They were looking for Australian custom I suspect. Really nice pension. Friendly people, good English, clean and well set up and close to town without being 'in town'.

Walking around town we were able to get into full 'tick off' mode. We visited the ruins of the basilica of St John. For the ungodly among you - and I suspect that there are at lease a couple - a basilica is a place where a part of one of the apostle is buried (I think). We had ticked off St Thomas' in India at Chennai, we ticked off St Phillip's at Heirapolis

Closer to Thee

the closer you were buried to the sky the better off you were

and now St John. Doing well eh! He did have a decent church, or would have if it was still there. It apparently would have been the 6th largest cathedral in the world if it hadn't been destroyed by earthquakes and others.

We were also able to tick off something perhaps more exciting but a little less impressive in the flesh, so to speak. The Temple of Artemis is here, or was, and it was one of the acknowledged wonders of the Ancient World. There isn't much left unfortunately but we took photos anyway and then went to the local museum to get a proper look at Artemis.

Ephesus, or Efes - as it is spelt in Turkish, also the name of the only beer we have consumed here - is about 3 km from Selcuk. This is a big place. In its day there was an estimated population of 200,000. In Roman times it became the capital of Asia Minor and was a major Roman city. You can still get a feel for the grandeur of the city although a lot of the statues are gone. They have excavated streets, houses, a brothel, a great latrine, the

Travertines

library and the theater which is certainly the largest we have seen. A number of terrace houses are currently under excavation and the visiting experience will get better over the years.

One of the downsides of visiting really spectacular tourist sites is that a lot of other people have the same idea. It can get to be a bit of a nuisance but, in the case of Ephesus, it probably just gave us some indication of what a bustling city the place would have been. We spent 3 hours at Ephesus and it was probably long enough although I could have happily joined an excavation team and spent a lot longer.

From Selcuk it was on to another bus and down to Bodrum. No ruins this time. The aim was to see if there was some way we could get over to Kalymnos. There is a strong connection between Darwin and Kalymnos. There are said to be more Kalymnians in Darwin now than there are in Kalymnos. We knew the island was only 15 or 20 km off the coast and we knew that it was possible to get boats across, sometimes. We also had been told that

More Travertine

the ferries would not be operating yet because it was too early in the season and that our only way of getting there would be too go to Kos first and then, possibly to Kalymnos. In the end the cost of all options and the lack of availability of appropriate boats just made it all too hard and much too expensive. We will get there later but next time from Greece.

In the meantime we got to Bodrum. We had been told that we would not enjoy this place. It is full on tourist. An idyllic location with a gravel beach lined by restaurants and bars, generally pretty pricey and with a lot of tourists. Not as many as it will have in a few weeks but enough for us at this time.

There is a height restriction, luckily, on the construction of buildings so there is nothing much over 3 stories and all buildings have to be white. It does tend to make the place look a little surreal but I guess it depends what you like.

In an attempt to at least see Kalymnos we hired a car and went for a drive around the

In Selcuk

I guess someone came back

Bodrum Peninsula. In this part of the country you can own the waterfront. It is not like Australia where you can drive along a beachfront, pull up, have a feed or a swim and go on. There is very little access to the waterfront without going into the hotels and other establishments. We found a few places around the peninsula but not many. White houses? Found plenty.

This was, of course, our first experience of driving on the right side of the road on this trip. Tony who was keenest to see Kalymnos organised the hire of the car and he got to drive. Those who know him will also know that he does like to look around - whether or not he is driving. So we had an interesting day moving along narrow little roads, sometimes on this side, sometimes that but generally quite slowly - which was good.

It is easy to look at this place and say this is just too much but the people are here because it is just beautiful. The water, the hills, even the weather - when the wind is not blowing and the sun is shining. It is a place

Artemis

and her apprentice. All that was left really of one of the biggest temples of all.

we could easily sit down and spend a week or two. Whether it is a real experience of another country or not is questionable though and for us, at this point of the trip, it is too much tourist.

We will now move along the Southern Aegean and Western Mediterranean part of Turkey.

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