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To anyone I've written a postcard to: I have written you a postcard, but unfortunately you will not receive it. I wrote some very nice postcards and used them to keep the page in my book. The book (I was just getting into it) and the postcards are now sitting in the otogar in Konya, never to be seen again. I suppose this sad story could be called 'Disaster Number Three.' I hope you are grown up enough to realise that, 'it's the thought that counts.' I've bought some more postcards and I'll send them soon.
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This is the start of a manic phase of seeing things: bus, see ruins, bus, sleep, bus etc.
In Selcuk I stayed in the Australian and New Zealand Guesthouse. It's a pity that there were no Anzacs there... I met two English girls, who were doing a whirlwind tour of Europe and only stopping for a couple of days in Turkey. Crazy way to see stuff, but I suppose they can now say that they've been to Turkey! The hostel was run by a family of Turks who've lived in Australia for a while, and it's attached to a carpet shop.
Artemis
No-one's quite sure what the baggy bits are - they could either be severed testicles or extra breasts Selcuk was a fairly nice place with quite a bit to do. The sunset over St John's Basilica was pretty - you can see the Isa Bey Mosque and the hilltop Byzantine / Seljuk fortress.
I went to see the ruins of Ephesus with the two English girls - after a couple of hours they'd had enough and taken their photos of the famous bits. There was a lot more to see off the standard tour-group trail and this adds to the excitement of discovering things for yourself. I climbed to the top of the hill behind the two theatres for a great view of the whole site and went off to explore things that I could see from up there. Ephesus was an important trading city and was centered around the worship of Cybele/Artemis (Diana). When the Romans came along, it became the provincial capital. St John also came here were Mary, and there is 'Mary's Church', which Pope JP II visited a few years ago. I'm sure you can find much more (and better) information on Ephesus if you do a quick search on Google.
On the walk back into town I had a quick look
at the ruins of the temple of Artemis. This was one of the 7 Wonders of the World and there is a great story about a British Archaeologist discovering it with the help of some Turkish railway workers, but I can't remember the details... The harbour gradually silted up at Ephesus and so the city declined. Most of the columns from the temple were taken away to be used in the Aya Sofia (I think) and the rest of the remains were covered by silt. I had a quick look in the Museum in Selcuk, which had various bits of frieze and statues of Artemis, as well as some of Priapus (Bes) with his rather large equipment.
In Selcuk I also did a tour of the three ancient cities of Priene, Miletus and Didyma. These cities were in Caria and the Carian King Mausolus built himself the Mausoleum at Halicarnassos. Priene was an important city in about 300 BC but declined quite quickly. For this reason, nearly all the ruins are Greek, without much building on top. The city was laid out on a grid-plan and has the remains of a Temple of Athena perched just underneath a mountain.
A Turk Fiat in Bergama
Beat that, Dylan. These things are everywhere. Lots of farming There is also a truly Greek theatre which had some very comfortable VIP seats on the front row.
The ruins at Miletus were pretty run-of-the-mill but I suppose it was quite an important place historically. There's a large theatre and a large bath complex. At Didyma there was an enormous temple of Apollo from C4 BC. It's possible to climb all over it and right down into the sanctuary where prophecies were issued. Some of the stone work was very impressive - each of the main column bases at the front were done by a different mason and so had different patterns. All the statues got carted off the the British Museum in 1858.
I got back to Selcuk just in time to catch a bus to get me up to Bergama in time to get to bed. In Bergama there is fantastic pide (Turkish pizza), a staple in a cheap diet out here alongside kebabs. I also bought the best strawberries I'd ever eaten in the fruit and veg market there. The food is my main memory of the town of Bergama, but at one end of the otherwise boring town is the Asclepion of Bergama and
Across the Dardanelles
You can just see a memorial written in Turkish on the other side at the other is the Acropolis. There is also the 'Red Church', one of the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse mentioned in Revelation.
The Asclepion complex was quite interested as it wasn't like any of the other ruins I've seen. It was founded by Archias, a local who had been cured at the Asclepion at Epidavros. There was a small theatre, a square, a sacred well and the Temple of Telesphoros, where patients would sleep to await a cure in their dreams. Near Bergama there is also a spa, which was recently discovered as the Turks started to build a damn. It's been sitting under mud for many years, so the mosaics and wall paintings are supposed to be very well preserved. I didn't go to see it as I didn't want to rent have to rent a car or scooter. Petrol is quite a bit more expensive than the UK out here. The spa may not be there in a few years, as the construction of the damn is going ahead. There's so much heritage in Turkey that a lot of it doesn't seem to matter.
The Acropolis of Pergamon is quite a way up hill and
to preserve space on top, the narrow theatre was built into a very steep section. Pergamon was a very important town, which prospered once it came under the control of one of Alexander the Great's general, Lysimachus. In 129 BC the Kingdom of Pergamon became the Roman province of Asia. At Pergamon the library was so great that it rivalled the library at Alexandria. For this reason, the supply of papyrus was cut off. The clever scholars at Pergamon invented parchment to write on instead. Not much remains of the library today. The frieze from the altar of Zeus was taken away to Berlin and now there's only the foundation of it. Halfway down the hill on the way back into Bergama there are terraces with well preserved Roman walls, houses etc. on them.
From Bergama I got a long bus to Canakkale, a town situated on one of the narrowest sections of the Dardanelles. Many people make this a base to hop over and visit the Gallipoli battlefields. It has been an important crossing point for many years and it is where Xerxes whipped the sea when he tried to float a bridge over it. I was quite happy to have a quick look over to the other side and then head down to Troy. Most people I'd spoken to had found Troy confusing and a disappointment. I thought it was good. There are nine cities on the site, but only cities 2 (the one Schliemann found gold in) and 6 (the one from the Trojan war) are really important. The setting was perfect to let your imagination run a bit wild. A little known fact: a British archaeologist had started digging at Troy a couple of years before Schliemann (1870) but had given up because he didn't have enough money.
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dylan
non-member comment
alrightt,,,
it's an ok tracktor...