Advertisement
Published: August 28th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Today we started out by visiting a carpet weaving centre. This I have to say was actually quite amazıng. The women that make these carpets are incredible, they can do up to 2000 knots a day to create these pieces of art. Aaron and I went in there thinkıng there is no way we would want one. But after seeing how much work goes into them and how gorgeous they end up.... we were seriously considering a purchase. But with the smallest available carpet costing NZD500 and the most expensive carpet costing NZD150000. We had to leave before we made a serious finacial faux pax!
The next stop on this day was Ephessus. Ephessus is an ancient roman cıty that has been heavily excavated and restored. It truly was quite spectacular. They think it will take another 100 years yet before they have excavated and restored the entire city. The library was thought to be the second biggest in its time. Unfortunately as it is so well restored and excavated it was also a tourist hotspot, and I found myself getting incredibly frustrated at them all, even though I was one myself. So unfortunately we were quite happy to leave
the site towards the end. An interesting fact though, it is thought that Mary and John the baptist retreated to a nearby house after the crucifiction. We also visited the site of one of the ancient wonders of the world. The temple of Athena, even though there is nothing left there. The one pillar still standıng is a replica unfortuantely, as it had been raided through the years to build other buildings such as the Hagia Sophia.
The next day we moved onto Pamukale, which is the site of Turkeys Pink and White Terraces. Our know it all guide started telling us how these are the only ones in the world and he was quite put out when we told him how New Zealand used to have them before they were blown up. They were however quite spectacular even though it was inundated wıth Russians. Who for some reason think that there ıs nothing else worthwhile to see or do in Turkey! We swam in the same thermal pools that Cleopatra ıs said to have swum in herself amongst ancient ruins. However I dont think Cleopatra would have swum in them in this day and age as they were
not exactly the cleanest, but hey we did it! That night we stayed close by in an amazing 5 star hotel.
The next day first thing in the morning we visited Aphrodisius, another ancient roman city. This out of all the ruins we have seen was actually our favourite. It might have been because there were very few tourists there and it felt like we were exploring something undiscovered. But whatever it was it was an amazing city. They are still actively excavating the city and are in the process of restoring parts of it. The bath and hippodrome are two of those. The most spectacular part of Aphrodısıus was the Arena which is one of the best naturally preserved sites in Turkey. There have been no excavatıons on it and what you see is how it has naturally deteriated over the years (which is minimal). I thought this was in itself quite an incredible wonder.
After Aphrodisius we enjoyed a wonderful local lunch and learned how great gazos (local drink like lemonade) is. All thanks to our travelling companions Georgina and Christie. Then we were off to Fetihye where we would be staying for 3 nights which
we were all thouroughly looking forward to.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.082s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0411s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb