Cirali, Turkey

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April 7 - 8, 2008
Cirali, Turkey

We took a 1½ hour bus ride to the small beach town of Cirali on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. On first arriving we wondered why our travel company had sent us here as this is a very quiet resort town and most of the businesses were just opening for the season. We took a walk into the village for a late lunch and had a look at the very nice beach area.

The next morning we spoke to the owner of the hotel ( a Turk who lived in Canada for a few years ), The Canada Hotel, about things to do in the area. We found out there is a very nice old ruins of an important ancient city called Olympos that is a good hike down the beach, across a small stream and through the forest. We took a four hour hike to this big and very interesting ruins site and wandered around the mountain trails that take you to the various different parts of the old city. We completed our trek with a walk to another small town at the other end of the beach and a very good dinner at the beach .

This evening at dusk we were driven a few kilometers to the base of a mountain trail that takes you up to what they call “ Fire on the Mountain”. We weren’t too sure what we were going to see but began our climb just before dark and climbed a very tough climb, up some rock stairs and paths, about a kilometer or so and up about 300 meters altitude to find fires burning out of the rocks. This site is an ancient temple site and the fires have been burning since ancient times fueled by methane gas coming out of the cracks in the rocks. To say the least we were very surprised and impressed with the very interesting fires. ( about 15 fires where we went to and more higher up the mountain ) The climb damn near killed us but it was worth it !!! As it was now dark ( very dark )we had to climb down in the dark with a small flashlight that was given to us by our driver. Needless to say we slept very well tonight with all the hiking today.

Now we know why this was suggested as a good place to visit and we really enjoyed our short time here.

Tomorrow we are picked up for the trip along the coast to Kas and some more scenery and historical sites .

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Photos

Fire on the mountain
Natural gas coming from the rocks on this mountain has been lit for years.