Advertisement
Published: October 15th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Xanthos
The theatre with the greenhouses of the modern town of Kinik in the background Tuesday 12th October: archaelogical daze. The idea for the day was to visit several archaelogical sites all within easy driving distance of Kas. We still had the hire car, from Ali Baba Rentals, and headed off for Xanthos a World Heritage site about 30 miles from Kas. This place had been a large and important city well before the Romans arrived and contained remnants of Lycian (pre-Roman), Greek, Roman and Byzantine cultures. It's a big place and it took us a few hours to get around it. The guide book made repeated mention of Sir Charles Fellows, a British explorer who visited the abandoned site in the 1840s and carted off a number of the best preserved architecture; which are now star exhibits in the British Museum. It seems that Sir Charles is remembered with the same degree of affection by the Turks as Lord Elgin (of Elgin Marbles fame) is by the Greeks. Then it was off down the valley towards the sea to look at Letoon another World Heritage site. We found the site amongst the endless plastic greenhouses that cover the entire valley and saw it all in less than half an hour because it's so small. Quite
Harpy Monument
5th century BC tomb. The original friezes are now in the British Museum courtesy of Sir Charles Fellows removing/nicking them in 1848. interesting because the authorities are in the process of restoring the main feature, the Temple of Leto, which helps give a better understanding of how impressive these places must have been: probably awe inspiring in their day. Lastly it was off to Patara via an excellent very late lunch in the local village. The weather had become somewhat overcast and we misread a sign saying that the ruins were closed so we headed off to Patara Beach which is the best by far on the Turquoise Coast: 12 miles long and sandy, unlike most beaches which are pebbly. Jane decided to enjoy sitting on the beach while I headed off in search of an adqueduct which I had wanted to look at. I didn't find it and returned to the beach for a paddle....being too timid to brave the slightly cool sea. Then it was back to Kas to return the car to Ali Baba and on for dinner.
Wednesday 13th October: a lazy day spent on a lovely beach very close to our hotel. The only significant thing we did was to decide to stay another day instead of returning to Antalaya as planned; as Kas was particularly
Xanthos Byzantine Cathedral
The beautiful mosaic floor has been covered by sheets with pebbles on top in order to preserve them, but some sections have been left uncovered for modern archaeologists, such as Morgan the Tom Raider, to view them. pleasant and also because I'd figured how to find the lost aqueduct at Patara.
Thursday 14th October: Ali Baba Car Rentals delivered to motor to the hotel bright and early and we headed off towards Patara. Having familiarised myself with the road on the previous visit and realised that Google Earth had not updated their map to indicate that a new section of the main D400 Highway was in fact open we found the lost aqueduct without difficulty and were vastly impressed by it. It's not a regular aqueduct as it crosses a valley using the siphon method: the water channel, actually a masonery pipe, dips down into the valley on a massive bridge then rises on the opposite side and discharged the water into a regular conduit which ran round a few more hills and then down to Patara. The ancients had figured out how to make a 30 inch diameter pipe from stones blocks and seal it so that it provided the siphon effect. On top of this, or rather below it, the bridge/causeway which supported the pipeline was constructed of massive polygonal blocks rather than the regular rectangular blocks which the Romans used as the irregular
Xanthos Main Street
Originally this street would have tall marble columns on both sides. It would have been very impressive. sided blocks were much more resistant to earthquakes. All this brilliant engineering 500 years before the Romans came along. Wonderful. Afterwards we went to Patara again to look at the ruins, and to have another excellent lunch at the restaurant we had been to on the Tuesday (owned by Arif the Mayor of Patara and all all round good guy according to a nice local lady who served us fresh juice in another cafe later in the day). The ruins at Patara wern't so impressive and as it was starting to rain quite heavily we headed back to Kas.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.42s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 12; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0849s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Will Bowden
non-member comment
siphon pictures
Sorry, think I pressed submit by accident. These are great pictures of the Patara siphon. Could I use them for my Roman aqueduct lecture for my first year students? Will (University of Nottingham)