Advertisement
Published: August 15th 2014
Edit Blog Post
The morning dawned bright and warm, following a late night involving a water pipe and quite a few measures of alcohol and a lot of umbrellas the Mammoth didn’t appear for breakfast. Woolly says – I think I deserved a lie in after all my hard work over the last few days, although missing breakfast is not a good idea, snacks please! We had rather a nice evening and I couldn’t believe my eyes when we found a street full of umbrellas, all different colours and quite impressive to say the least. With a few new fans in my quest for fame life was good. Our walk back led us past a fleet of horses and carriages, strangely they were all spotted, on closer inspection the poor horses had had the spots painted on! Well I never, hopefully Jo won’t get any ideas! We had found a Pansiyon in the old town of Antalya (email: dedehanpansiyon@hotmail.com) a snip at 50 TL (approximately £ 13.85 GBP) a night and Happy and I were ready for the off when the Mammoth finally made his entrance. Woolly says – Antalya dates back to the Paleolithic period. Oh oh lots of my relatives would have been around then! Founded by Attalus II of
Pergamum in the 1st century BC, the city was named Attaleia. When the Pergamene kingdom was bequeathed to Rome, Attaleia became a Roman city. Emperor Hadrian visited here in AD 130 and a triumphal arch (now known as Hadrian’s Gate) was built in his honor. I think Hadrian must be following in my footsteps! To the gate I say! Poor Woolly he gets so confused. Woolly says – Ok let’s finish the spiel first. The Byzantines took over from the Romans but in 1207 the Seljuk Turks based in Konya snatched the city from them and gave Antalya a new version of its name, and also its symbol, the Yivle Minaret (Grooved Minaret). After WWI the Allies divided up the Ottoman Empire and Italy got Antalya in 1918, by 1921 Atatürk repatriated the area with the rest of Turkey. A prosperous port, Antalya was surrounded by thick defensive stone walls with several gates that could be closed and sealed in case of attack from pirates or invaders. The grandest of these, and the only one surviving, is Hadrian's Gate, a monumental triple-arched modelled on the Roman triumphal arch. Hadrian's Gate was constructed in 130 AD to commemorate Emperor Hadrian's visit to the city, statues of Emperor Hadrian and his family originally decorated the top of the gate, but these are long gone. NOW can we go to my hero’s gate?
To save our sanity we set off, Woolly’s delight was wonderful as he stood proudly in front of the massive crenelated stone towers that frame the gate. With his beady eyes checking out the lovely engravings and lions that decorated it. Woolly says – Hail Emperor Woolly, Hail Hadrian it’s good to bump into you again. Having taken my fill and the obligatory photo’s we continued on our way, Roman walls seemed to pop out of everywhere until we turned a corner and found ourselves in front of the Grand Mosque. Not the most impressive Mosque I have been to but worth a picture none the less. Ulu Cami (Grand Mosque), also called Alaaddin Camii or Yivli Minare Camii (Fluted Minaret Mosque), was built by the Anatolian Seljuk Sultan Alaaddin Keykubad I. The mosque was first built in 1230 and fully reconstructed for the second time in 1373. The
minaret is 38 metres (125 ft) high and was built on a square stone base, with eight fluted sections with 90 steps to the top. That’s a lot of steps when you only have short legs. The option to climb wasn’t there as the Mosque was closed to the public so on we went down the slippery pavements that led to the Old Harbour. Woolly says – For a large city it’s quite a small harbour and remembering that our furniture had once arrived here I struggled to see where they would have put the container ship. That’s because it went to the much newer harbour, bless him. Woolly says – a quick snack break and while the lazy peps sat watching the ships I made a discovery, a Toy museum! Using my big eyes and the pleading look that I can get away with resulted in us paying for our tickets and looking at what was on offer. A strange place, the UK had no recognition in its toy story (I like that film) but Germany and the good old US of A featured heavily, the dating of items were given in ten year blocks which meant that I didn’t really learn very much and why a figurine of Princess Di was there flummoxed me, the Smurfs however were very friendly and the Pink Panther was happy to have his photo taken with me.
Leaving the harbour behind us we took a very slow walk up the steps and back into the Old Town itself, the first map we came to gave us directions to the crooked minaret. Woolly says – Giving Jo a poke I pointed out an old abandoned Mosque which was right behind us, gated and closed it looked remarkable and we took a few minutes to admire the different decades that appeared in the brick and stone work a shame we could look further. This beautiful landmark is part of a 2nd century AD building that was originally a temple. In the Byzantine period, the structure became a church. In the Ottoman period, the Kesik Minare (Truncate) became a mosque. This is when the minaret was added. Following damage in an earthquake it is now closed. It is a little gem. Wandering on we found small lanes to investigate and plenty of buildings with more Roman walls to look at. The heat was incredible and even furry paws was flagging as we kept a look out for the crooked Minaret. Woolly says - We walked for hundreds of miles, finding more tourist signs but not crooks anywhere, finally at my prompting Jo asked a local for help, ‘that way 250 metres’ came the response, on we went, coming to a small cross roads we asked again, ‘400 metres that way’, WHAT! It’s getting further away, what are they doing to me. On we went, heat stroke was becoming a reality as we turned a corner and found a minaret in front of us, please let it be this one. We found ourselves back at the Truncate Minaret over an hour and we still hadn’t found the crooked minaret, despair started to set in, I asked again, ‘it is there’ said the man pointing at the very place we were stood! Woolly says – I need new tour guides, they made me walk all that way to the building we had already seen, Jo mentioned the old Turkish Haman, Happy mentioned beer, guess who’s suggestion we went with?
Advertisement
Tot: 0.181s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 14; qc: 35; dbt: 0.0864s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Paul Drielsma
non-member comment
those umbrellas
I saw a street just like this in ......... ??? Can't remember...... Maybe it was Tbilisi? Cute and clever. And there is a neat leaning minaret in Sivas .... but hey.... am I trying to keep up and outdo? Never!