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Published: June 16th 2009
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After a rather good breakfast, bread, olives, melon, watermelon, cheese, omlette, washed down with lots of coffee, we spent all day wandering around the travertines, and the ruins of Heiropolis. I managed to not put sunblock an a bit of my legs with the inevitable result, a rather red patch which is a little sore. Oh well. Hilary managed to miss a bit as well, but it is all minor so nothing to worry about.
We took the short way up, a path over the travertines which requires shoes to be removed. It is an easy enough walk and the stone is on the whole pretty smooth and not slippery. It was rather full of other tourists which was pretty much expected, but they pretty much only do the travertines, the ancient pool and the theatre, so it is easy enough to escape the crowds. Walk 5 minutes away in any other direction and Heiropolis is peaceful. The necropolis is particularly quiet but then again the only living occupants were birds including goldfinches bathing in a pool, a tortoise and a few lizards.
Heiropolis is a bit odd as, whilst it was obviously a very prosperous place, the necropolis
is huge. There were a lot of dead people there, and their tombs are elaborate. There's a lot of reconstruction due to be done as there is a belief that it could become even more of a major tourist attraction than it is at present. Apparently they have about 90% of the theatre scenae so a good restoration can be done.
We keep seeing this particular sort of bird which is like a long legged bold nuthatch. Some kind of finch, we reckon.
Hilary finished reading the White Tiger which she liked a lot and is now reading a Doris Lessing which is not one of her better works. The reader, however, is useful.
Not sure what else to say about today's 5 hour stroll in intense sunshine. It was a lot of fun, though the latish roman Heiropolis is not really to my taste. The theatre (which is where they are concentrating on the restoration as they have 90% of the decoration (minus heads, naturally)) and it's close to the bits the tour buses from Antalya visit. Which means all of the signage is in Russian (and other languages). Talking of languages... all the Roman inscriptions
at Heiropolis are in Latin but using the Greek alphabet. I guess the local people (merchants etc) knew the Greek alphabet and continued using it when the Romans arrived so the script became adopted.
The travertines are quite vulnerable to wear and tear so there are bits you are not allowed to walk on (even without shoes). I was surprised by how many people believe that the notices requesting them to keep of certain areas do not apply to them. Also someone has defaced one of the metopes in the museum. And they touch the marbles (probably just ignorance). Gaaaah. I am somewhat intolerant. Why can't they stay in the places with thumpy music which they so obviously enjoy?
It's been another bike free day but this is fine, going riding tomorrow and, after the long ride yesterday, it was good to get around on feet. Ashley's foot still hurts and complains about being abused by purposeful walking.
Found nice place to eat, drank beer watched sunset, had food, travertines were illuminated but this is not the sort of thing you can capture in a photograph. Before the sun went down we had an hour of watching
swallows trying to coax their youngster to actually take to the air. It did a couple of short flights but kept returning to the nest (lightfitting in a restaurant). That is about as exciting as this place gets in the evenings and that is all good.
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chucktx
non-member comment
wow
the travertines are cool!!!! looks like frozen water and small waterfalls. very interesting!!! stay safe and have fun!!!! chuck