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Published: March 27th 2009
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Pamukkale and Ephesus
Alright, i don'tknow where to start. Ephesus was really neat and the ruins were really cool to. Apparently we drove by a city that the virgin mary used to live on in a house. The roman ruins in ephesuse had soo much detail. As nice as it was my favaorite part of the the south of Turkey is Pamukkale! This place if really over looked in a lot of tourism guides. Some people say you can see all there is to see here in a few hours. But, they are totally wrong! The main attraction here is the calcium pools that are littered all up the side of a massive hill. This calcuim deposit creats a snow like look, although with pools of warm water called travertines. There is really no way to describe it as side from seeing it.
In
Pumakkale we spent three days here because there is so much to see and do. Our second day was used for personal relaxation and beautification. We went to a local mud bath/hot springs which was just soooooo relaxing. I got covered in mud with my neices and had a blast.Afterward the hotspring was super hot the
little ones couldn't go in. My brother and myself did however, soak for a little while. After this tranquil morning we went for lunch again and then went back up the hill to see the travertines. Close by on the top of the hill is an enormous deposit of Roman ruins including an ampatheatre or Odeon We thought this would be another one of your typical roman history tours again, amazing as it is. It got even better. hundreds of years ago the Romans found the hot springs on the hill here near the tavertines. THese hot baths were available for us to swim at! The had roman ruins and colums in the water that was just beautiful. No clorine in the water, clear and beautiful, sparkling water! Yes Sparkling! this water was slightly carbonated! you could see the bubles poping on the surface. It was like swiming in warm Perrier water. These pools were supossed to be very therapudic so neddless to say by the end of the day we were totally pruned out! Tomorrow it's off to see some more ruins and then to the Aegean Sea and beach time! before we head back on Sunday.
The
Aya Sofiawas first build almost 2000 years ago and boasts the second largest dome in the world (st perters bascillica beign the first.) Was later turned into a mosque later and now a museum. It was recentlyl in the new when Pope Benidict visited and the people of Turkey did not want him to pray at its entrance when visiting, because this would have been seen as claiming it back in the name of Christianity.
The
Blue Mosque was built between 1609 and 1616 by order of the Sultan Ahmed I, after whom it is named. He is buried in the mosque's precincts. It is located in the oldest part of Istanbul, in what was before 1453 the centre of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. It is next to the site of the ancient Hippodrome, and a short distance from what used to be the Christian Church of the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) which has now been converted into a museum.
The
Topkapı Palace (Topkapı Sarayı in Turkish, literally the "Cannongate Palace" - named after a nearby gate), located in Istanbul (Constantinople), was the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire from 1465 to 1853. The construction
of the Topkapı Palace was ordered by Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror in 1459. It was completed in 1465. The palace is located on the Seraglio Point between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara in Istanbul, having a splendid view of the Bosphorus. It consists of many smaller buildings built together and surrounded by four courts.
The
Grand Bazarr is one of the largest covered markets in the world with more than 58 streets and 4000 shops, and has 250,000-400,000 visitors daily. It is well known for its jewelry, pottery, spice, and carpet shops. Many of the stalls in the bazaar are grouped by type of goods, with special areas for leather coats, gold jewelry and the like. The bazaar contains two bedestans, or domed masonry structures built for storage and safe keeping, the first of which was constructed in 1455-1461 by the order of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. The bazaar was vastly enlarged in the 16th century, during the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and in 1894 underwent a major restoration following an earthquake.
Technically, the correct translation of the Turkish name Kapalıçarşı is "Covered Bazaar" and not "Grand Bazaar", simply because the Turks do
not call it "Grand Bazaar". In Turkish kapalı means "covered" and çarşı means "market" or "bazaar" (as in the Persian 'bazar', where the word originates from and in English we spell it as "bazaar".)
Kuşadası Sun coffee and relaxation. Kuşadası is extremely popular as a tourist destination, both for its many beaches, and as the port for cruise ship passengers heading to Ephesus. Kuşadası has a residential population of 50,000 which rises to over half a million during the summer due to local and foreign tourists.
Aphrodisias, On our final days in Turkey we visitied the Greek/Roman ruins at Aphrodisias, spending hours exploring the sarcophagi (roman coffins latin for "flesh eater" because the limestone naturally decays flesh), columns, temples and other structures. Orginally a greek settlement Aphrodisias also features the largest greek stadium still intact. this Stadium was built in an a very elongated ovaal shape perfect for running competitions, wrestling, discus and Javalin.
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