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Published: April 27th 2010
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27 April 2010
Palmyra, Syria
The ruins here in Palmyra are pretty impressive, although we have seen so many Roman ruins now. I must say I was more impressed with those at Jerash in Jordan. One thing in particular which stood out for me was the hippodrome where the gladiators played and I loved the special entry door for the lions. The history there was a bit more varied because there were some earlier occupants started the city, and then the Romans took over followed by various conquering civilisations. The Temple of Bel was particularly interesting because it was dedicated to various gods as different civilisations took over. We saw an old olive press with the crushing wheels worn smooth with use. The Muslims took over in the 8th century and we could see where they used old bits of fallen columns and masonry blocks to build new walls.
We spent a night at Krak des Chevallier crusader fort/castle from 1200AD. Our hotel overlooked the castle. It was fairly complete and a lot of fun running around inside it. We have a photo of Rachel, who unfortunately was shot dead by the enemy forces. We saw the kitchen area
and banquet hall and whilst we were doing some filming of the movie Cleopatra and it was really cool to see the set with all the plastic rocks and colums.
We enjoyed the city of Aleppo, not as good as Damascus though. Aleppo is a lot bigger than I thought. Our kiwi guide, Nina, married a local guy Mahomoud, whose family has a scarf shop at the souk. The day we were there they bought a house. The Souk is fantastic. It is huge; I think it has 7kms of covered stalls and walkways. Not really a tourist market but a place where locals go to do their shopping. You can buy just about anything there. Our hotel, the lovely quaint Dar Hababia (hotel de charme) is made up of 3 converted houses. It is really beautifully done. Our rooms were lovely and we really enjoyed our 2 nights there. Sarah bought herself one of the bed covers which are really pretty. We had fantastic felafels for dinner at a cost of about 50 cents each and the next night when we went back there for more the owner gave them to all of us for free and threw
in a free bottle of water. This is typical of the hospitality we are finding there. They were delicious and even Rachel, the fussiest in the family, loved them. We also went and had drinks at the Baron Hotel, where Agatha Christie spent time writing and the unpaid bill of Laurence of Arabia is displayed in a glass cabinet. We visited the Sheraton hotel in Aleppo, as it has the only reliable ATM and enjoyed the lovely toilets there. We also found the little shops inside the hotel lobby were actually cheaper as we had seen a particular bracelet in the Souk much dearer. Go figure. Other things we did in Aleppo was a guided tour around the Souk, visited on the tour a traditional bath house, went to yet another mosque and visited the Christian area.
We dragged our bags through the Souk and streets of Aleppo to the bus station, where we boarded a small international/local bus to the Turkish border and then onto Antakya in Turkey. The border crossing was the easiest yet. We were surprised to find packages of cigarettes and tea under our seats, which the driver and co-driver collected up once we crossed
the border. Some sort of tax dodge so I guess that makes us all smugglers.
The countryside was spectacular as we climbed up into the mountains and we could see snow in the distance. Antakya was really pretty and we enjoyed walking the streets and our first Turkish meal of Pide and Kunefe. The locals were friendly as always and struggled with the new language of Turkish.
This day and the next were big travel days but we enjoyed the scenery including two extinct volcanoes with snow on top. We spent the night at Nigde and the next day we enjoyed a very scenic drive into Cappadocia. We had lunch by a little snow fed stream, absolutely gorgeous and went for a walk along the stream and visited some cave churches, of which there are over 200 in Turkey, dating from the 1st century BC. The Christians that lived here were trying to avoid detection by the Romans, who I guess used to throw them to the lions in those early days. The original artworks which covered the walls and ceilings are still evident in some of the cave churches.
After our walk we drove another 55kms
to see an amazing underground city. This was really wow. These cities are huge and again were built by Christians to hide from Roman detection. We saw only 25% of one city and went down 7 levels but our guide tells us there were 12 levels in total and more cities are still being discovered. It was pretty cold down there; we saw a winery, bedrooms, kitchens, food storage areas, a church and meeting areas - all underground. Also mill stones were used to block passages and tunnels in case of discovery down there. Most of the time the Christians lived in normal farms but if invaders or Romans came they could live underground for up to three months at a time. Romans would simply find ‘ghost towns’ and move on or settle in the town temporarily.
We arrived in this gorgeous little town yesterday and will spend two nights at the Walnut Hotel, very cute rooms. The landscape around here resembles a moonscape whilst in other parts the weathered rock looks like gnome houses. Many of the local people live here in houses with rooms carved into the rock. It is really cute and different. Many of these
houses are being bought up and converted in hotels. We have been to a carpet education talk and learned all about Turkish carpets which was really interesting but we did not buy a carpet as we have spent all our mad money on an early morning balloon trip. The ballooning was amazing. It was such a relaxing and scenic way to enjoy this landscape. Drifting alongside apricot trees and through valleys with amazing rock formations then up high to see the snow covered volcanoes and mountains in the distance. We visited the open air museum and saw mostly cave churches there with exquisite internal artwork and columns. We really loved exploring the surrounding area ourselves and discovered lots of interesting caves some with remnants of colour and paintings.
Today we are off to a fancy lunch of testi-kebabs. Mmmmm, I hear you say. We have been assured there are no testicles in them. It’s our final meal as a group as after lunch we are off to the train station for our overnight train to Istanbul.
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The who's
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more blank rocks
Know what you mean about ruins and rocks, but one must do what one must do. Have you had the apple tea yet? The ballon ride over Cappodicia must have been amazing. Safe travels The Whoo Whooooo!