A Tale Of Two Turkish Tourist Towns


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Middle East » Turkey » Marmara » Istanbul
June 12th 2010
Published: June 12th 2010
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The Mausoleum of HalicarnassasThe Mausoleum of HalicarnassasThe Mausoleum of Halicarnassas

One of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, this model shows what it probably looked like.
Friday 11 June. We have been sailing up the coast of Turkey all night and reached the Dardanelles at around 10 am this morning. The good news that I forgot to tell you last time is that Karen's voice has returned, if not 100%! (MISSING)She has been able to enjoy dinner conversation for the last two nights. The bad news is that she is also stuffed up with a cold, which is draining her energy. It is unlikely that she will take part in the deck-walking 'marathon' today; 25 laps around the decks. But now to return to our arrival in Turkey.

Wednesday 9 June.


Upon reaching Harbour at Bodrum, half a dozen Turkish customs officers came out in a little boat flying a Turkish flag. With the ships papers in order, Wind Star anchored in the harbour and we tendered ashore at 8.30 for our shore excursion. As we walked to our bus, we saw an American warship that was just preparing to leave. Our guide, Irgin, was a tall, lean, aristocratic man, not your usual image of a Turk. He spoke very good English and, once again, had a real passion for his job. There is no doubt that the Wind Star line employs only the best guides. We were also treated to the best bus service that we have had yet; not only a very nice bus, but complimentary bottles of water and sachets of hand sanitizer. It was only a 10 minutes drive through town to our first destination; the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, another of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. When the ruler Mausolus died in 353 BC, his wife had the tomb built for him. Called the Mausoleum, it is a word still used today. It was an enormous white marble tomb, 45 metres high, topped by Dorian columns, a stepped pyramid, and with Mausolus and his wife in a chariot on top.

We walked backed through town to our next destination, The Castle of Bodrum. Irgin gave us a lot of general information on Turkey, but also spent a while defending his country against what he perceived to be wrong ideas that people have about it. To start with he explained that Turkey has nothing to do with 'that bird'! It is pronounced Tur-key-ah. The Turks however prefer the alternative names Anatolia, or Asia Minor. The Turks originated in Central Asia,
Mausoleum WallsMausoleum WallsMausoleum Walls

The old bottom blocks are original.
moving to the area of Asia Minor in the 11th Century to create the Ottoman Empire, which lasted until the end of WWI. Turkey then took up the borders that it has now. The Hungarians and Fins had similar origins, and thus have similarities in their languages. There are 75 million people in Turkey, with about 17 million in Istanbul, 5 million in the capital Ankara, and 3 million in Smyrna. The religion is mainly Muslim, but Irgin stressed that they are not Arabs, and not Muslim fundamentalist terrorists! In fact they are proud of the fact that it is a very secular society, with people of Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Orthodox faiths all living together peacefully, with complete freedom of faith.

Bodrum occupies the site of ancient Halicarnassus, a Carion city colonized by the Dorians from the Peloponnese in 1000 BC. In the 6th Century BC it came under Persian rule. When the Knights of St John lost their castle at Smyrna (further up the west coast), they came to Bodrum and used the stones from the toppled Mausoleum to build the Castle of St Peter in 1522. Now simply known as Bodrum Castle, it is a magnificent structure that still stands (with considerable restoration) at the entrance to Bodrum harbour. Along with fortifications on Rhodes and the Island of Kos, they dominated the SE Agean, running a hospital for passing pilgrims. When Rhodes was captured in 1523, the Knights were forced to move to Malta. Our own St John's Ambulance Service is a continuation of the work of these early knights.

The castle itself is the best that we have seen for walking around. One can walk its complete walls, getting magnificent views both over the inner castle and to the city, port, and sea around it. The knights came from a range of countries, and each has a tower named after them; English, French, Italian, and German towers. As well there is Snake Tower and Harbour Tower, The Spanish Church, The Gothic Chapel, and Turkish Baths. The area within the walls is like a cross between a botanical garden and a museum of antiquities. Trees and flowers grow everywhere, while artifacts, mainly of Roman origin, lie around everywhere. There is even an enclosed area with peacocks (but no turkeys!). A special room in one tower (no photos allowed) contains the golden treasures of a Carion Princess, along with her complete skeleton in a sarcophagus (and that of a mouse that they think must have jumped in just before the lid was put on!). The English Tower contains a display of memorabilia relating to the Knights of St John. A special section of the castle has been converted into the Sunken Boat Museum, with artifacts found in ship wrecks dating from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages, including the complete cargo of a Syrian trading ship from the 13th Century BC, laid out in a reproduction of the ship, just as they were found. These included hundreds of earthenware vessels for carrying spices etc, as well as huge metal ingots. The restoration of the castle was the life's work of one man who made it his business to make all sections of the castle open to the public. Unfortunately, since his death, the authorities have not employed enough staff to do this, and the only disappointment was that we could not see in some of the other towers or gain access to the dungeons! After our tour ended, K&I remained for another hour to walk the walls, which had not been part of the tour. We then walked the half hour back around the waterfront to catch the tender to Wind Star, where we made it just in time for a late lunch at about 2 pm. The weather had been very warm again, and we were officially knackered. We both had a sleep for an hour after lunch. The water sports platform at the stern of the ship was open during the day, and I took advantage of this to try a sea kayak and to have a swim in the sea. The kayaking I found easy and good fun, crashing upwind into a small chop, and then short bits of surfing off the tops of swells as I headed down wind. Swimming was another matter. It was lovely looking down through the lovely clear blue water, but swimming against the current was hard work. The ship had a large foam pad acting as a sea anchor at the end of a line of buoys. I swum out to this easily, but had to stop and rest on the buoys 2 or 3 times on the way back. I can appreciate now how frustrating swimming Cook Strait must be if the currents or tides are against you! The water was relatively warm however, and I enjoyed being in the sea for the first time in ages. Karen had intended to follow me, but couldn't wake herself up enough with the effects of her cold.

That evening, before dinner, we had another guide, Ozan, give us a talk about Turkey. This was followed by a colourful display of Turkish dancing, followed by an expert display of belly dancing. After her highly skillful and disciplined routine, the belly dancer had us in fits of laughter when she had four aged over-weight men carry out a routine with her! Dinner that night was a very special BBQ on the Pool Deck. The head chef surpassed himself with the range and presentation of all the 'goodies' for us to eat. As we sat eating, our sister ship Wind Spirit, which had met us at Rhodes and followed us to Bodrum, sailed right around us, with much cheering and waving from both ships, before she set off for Santorini. The BBQ was followed by Line Dancing by the pool, and a Deck Party with music and dancing. We didn't stay up for these however. There was another long day ahead.

Thursday 11 June.


Sailing into Kusadasi Harbour we were met once again by two tugs who turned us around and parked us against the wharf. The big resort town of Kusadasi sparkled in the morning sun. From a nearby hill a large statue of Ataturk, the Father of modern Turkey, looked down on the city. Two large cruise ships were parked alongside us in the special Cruise Harbour. Everybody was heading in just one direction: Ephesus, one of the grandest and best preserved of all the ancient classical ruins (and one of 16,000 archeological sites in Turkey). Originally on the coast (but now 15 km inland), Ephesus was a prosperous port of trade connecting Europe, Asia, and Africa. The earliest evidence of human occupation on the site dates back to 1400 BC. The Greeks, Persians, and Egyptians all had periods of ruler ship over the city, but it was when the Romans controlled Ephesus just after 27 BC that it became the largest city in the Roman Empire after Rome itself. Most of the buildings visible today date from the Roman era when Ephesus had nearly 250,000 inhabitants.

Our guide for the day was Ozan, who had talked to us the previous evening. He was as enthusiastic as Irgin, but perhaps just as much with the intention of entertaining us as informing us, and had the knack of building up our expectations of more glorious things ahead. Like Irgin, he loves his country but is very critical of its Government (something not confined to Turkey I think!). Travelling inland by bus, we travelled up a flat valley which is very fertile, growing, amongst other things, peaches, cotton, tobacco, mulberry trees , olives, oranges, apricots, and figs. These were all growing on the silt that has washed down a river over centuries, and which silted up the harbour at Ephesus, causing The city's decline. This silting buried Ephesus under 20 metres of soil, and only a third of the site has been excavated so far. This whole area is also of much historical interest to Christians. It was in this valley that the Apostle John wrote his gospel. He was the only one of the Apostles who die a peaceful death, reaching the age of 103. Mary lived at Ephesus for 15 years, having moved to Turkey with John some time after the Crucifiction, in the 1st Century AD. She lived to the age of 64. One of the other excursions included a visit to her house. Rediscovered in the late 19th Century, the site is a shrine of the Catholic Church and was visited by Pope Paul VI in 1967 and Pope Bededict XVI in 2006.

Reaching the entrance to Ephesus, there was little to see at first, other than scattered ruins, but a short walk brought us to the main excavations. Here we walked down the Arcadian Way, the main thoroughfare from the ancient port up hill through the city. This original white marble road was lined by rows of statues, with shops on either side which had mosaic floors. This same road had been walked by, amongst others, Anthony & Cleopatra and Alexander The Great. Other notable remains along the way were The Temple of Hadrian, the Odean, Tragan's Fountain, a hospital, the public toilets, and the brothel! At the lower end of the street was the Agora, the large open area that was the centre of the city (like Cathedral Square) and used as a place for people to meet, markets, etc. Beside the Agora is the magnificent Celcus Library. Celcus was one of the Governors of Ephasus. When he died, his son had the Library built over his father's grave as a tomb. 80% of what you see in the photo is original. At Ephesus all the marble is original. Any bits missing have been replaced by concrete rather than new marble. All the marble was obtained from local quaries, which are still in use today. On a hillside above one side of the Arcadian Way, 7 private houses have been found and covered by a multi-million dollar glass and steel structure to preserve the site while dozens of workers meticulously put together hundreds of thousands of pieces to recreate the mosaics, frescos, marble wall panels, marble furniture etc in these houses. The largest of these houses, nearest the street covers 9000 sq ft, with many rooms. Further up the hill are smaller houses with smaller rooms. All show evidence of horizontal plumbing for drainage and vertical plumbing for hot air central heating. A long series of stainless steel steps and glass walkways allowed us to walk alongside and above them all and view them. Not far away was The Great Theatre, which can seat 25,000 people and has similar acoustic
Wind Spirit.Wind Spirit.Wind Spirit.

Our sister ship passes around us before sailing away.
properties to the theatre we saw at Epidaurus. It is still used regularly for concerts by visiting artists. Finally we happened across a group of people acting out the glory days of the Roman Empire, with performers, dancing maidens, and gladiators all performing for the Governor and his enterage. Their costumes were lavish and the performances well done.

Returning to Kusadasi, we were taken to a family owned carpet factory. This is a very upmarket establishment, selling only the best hand-knotted Turkish rugs, and one of very few capable of making all silk rugs. After a demonstation by a highly skilled craftsman (one of only 4 left) of the art of spinning silk by hand from silk cocoons, we watched another highly skilled person, a woman, hand knotting a very complicated pattern on a silk carpet at great speed. They say that you have to be born with this skill, and that getting the pattern right is more of an artform than merely copying a pattern. Then we were led into a big carpet showroom, fed food and a drink, and had about 50 carpets unrolled in front of our eyes of many different types from different parts of
Docking at Kusadasi.Docking at Kusadasi.Docking at Kusadasi.

At around 7 am.
Turkey. Most were either wool on wool, or wool on cotton. Only the last few were silk, which are more for decoration than hard use, not because they can't stand the wear, but because they are too valuable. I liked the very first one best, a 12 ft x 9 ft wool on cotton carpet with 316 double knots per square inch. It took 2 years to make and was described as one of the best carpets available, already being in Buckingham Palace and other palaces. I made the mistake of asking how much it cost. The owner of the business seemed to interpret that as meaning that I was interested in buying it! Soon the other 50 carpets on top were flung in all directions to allow me to look at it again. Surprisingly the cost was only $US29,000. I had expected it to be hundreds of thousands. I then made a hasty retreat to the street before I got lynched for giving them all this extra work! One couple in our group, from Peru, did buy two small carpets, so that at least meant that the business had a good day out of our group. Incidentally, postage to
The Arcadian Way at Epheses.The Arcadian Way at Epheses.The Arcadian Way at Epheses.

Looking back up hill from where we started.
your front door, along with any import duties etc, are paid for by the Turkish government in order to help Turkey's economy. From the factory we had a short walk back to the boat. I then went ashore again and, for the price of an orange drink (about $4) used the wi-fi in a Starbucks coffee shop to send you our last blog. Leaving port at 4 pm, we sat outside for a while before having showers and the usual evening activity of pre-dinner nibbles before dinner and bed. And so ended our visits to these two attractive tourist ports and towns. Apart from some slightly more aggressive traders, everything in these towns are easy for tourists; the locals are tolerant and friendly, English is spoken by most people in the tourist business, and English signs are prevalent. If it wasn't for thousands of Turkish flags flying everywhere, including every boat in the harbours, you would hardly know that you were in Turkey. So I guess this is not the real Turkey. As our guide said, 'Turks will accept anything that looks like money”, and fleecing tourists of money is what these places are about. But at least they don't
Ephesus Latrines.Ephesus Latrines.Ephesus Latrines.

Water below flushed away waste, while water in the front half-pipe was used with a sponge for cleaning.
pretend that they have any other intention. A big shop outside the entrance to Ephesus read “ Geguine Fake Watches Sold Here” !!
P&K



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Glory of Rome.Glory of Rome.
Glory of Rome.

A Govenor gives two gladiators the thumbs up.
The Theatre.The Theatre.
The Theatre.

All the pieces in the foreground are numbered and waiting to be put back together.


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