Around Turkey - Antalya

How we even got to Antalya I am not sure! Our bus driver got lost numerous times and the passengers had to tell him where to go. And about half an hour after leaving a food stop we had to turn around and go back because he had left someone behind!! Luckily this meant that we got into Antalya a little later than we would have because we still arrived at 7am.

Anyway.....
Antalya is on the Southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. It is really beautiful as it is on the water and is surrounded by mountains. Mum and Dad had been there before so told us where to stay so we got a service bus into town and then walked through the old town. There are really nice cobbled streets with cute little houses along them so it was nice walking along. We even walked through the Marble Hadrian's gate which was erected during the Roman Emperor Hadrian's reign between 117-38AD!

On the Harbor of Antalya.

Surrounded by mountains.

Hadrian's Gate.

Standing underneath Hadrian's gate.

Walking along the streets of the old city to find our accomodation.

A beautifully restored house.

Just some random ruins (this sort of thing is everywhere!)

We got to the place we were staying at and then talked to them about going to see Termessos which is an old ruined city up in the mountains and also Olympos where the flames naturally come out of the rock in a mountainside. Unfortunately this 2 places weren't very easy to get to by ourselves so we essentially had to hire a driver. We managed to bargain with them but it still cost us $120 to be driven to both places!!!!!! It seemed really expensive to us but at least we had the car and driver for the day. We decided that in winter it is better to go in a group because then you have more people to share the cost between. With just the two of us it was pretty expensive.

So we headed off that morning up into the mountains to Termessos. We were quite glad of the car as the city is built at an altitude of more than 1000 meters up in the Taurus Mountains. The Pisidian people were prone to battling and after they successfully fought off Alexandra the Great the Roman's left them to be independent. Termessos is one of the best preserved archeological sites in Turkey so it was defiantly worth seeing. Termessos has a variety of buildings including baths, churches, houses and so on.

This was once the entrance to the Artemis-Hadrian Temple.

More ruins. Not too sure what this building was.

Remains of an entrance way.

Tomb in the hillside.

More rock cut tombs.

We saw this carved into the rock near the tomb of Alcetas.

The cisterns where the water was stored.

Probably the most spectacular is the theatre. Unfortunately due to earthquakes it has been damaged but the shape has held and you can see that it would have once been an experience in its time. Another thing that makes this theatre so stunning is the view. It is on the side of a mountain so you can see all around in each direction for miles. We sat on the top and had lunch here looking out. And it starting snowing!! Only lightly but it was snowing!

What is left of the theatre.

The stunning views.

Shailen on top of the world.

We spent quite a few hours looking around Termessos as it is spread over a large area. We then made our way past the Sarcophagi up to the top of the mountain. Now we aren't just talking about a few Sarcophagi we are talking about thousands of them all down the mountainside and due to earthquakes they are just thrown all over the place. It was a crazy sight to see.

Just a few of the thousands of Sarcophagi.

Some of them have inscriptions on them.

We made our way back down and drove the couple of hours to Olympos. The other good thing about having a driver is that he knew where these places were. I wouldn't like to try and find them myself because they are out in the middle of nowhere!

Olympos is where the Olympic flame originated from. There is a legend behind this flame burning eternally from the mountain side and it goes like this.

The Chimera.

You can see the flames all over the hillside.

The King of Ephyra’s son Hippones kills his brother Belleros during a battle party and takes the name Bellerophontes which means “the one who ate Bellarus”. The Ephyra Kingdom sends Bellerophontes into exile and he takes refuge behind the king of Argos. The King of Argos considers killing someone that took refuge behind him as a lack of self-respect so he sends Bellerophontes to the Lycian Kingdom.
The King of Lycia also doesn’t like the idea of killing this young man because of the miserable situation he is in and wants him to fight with the monster Chimera living in the Mountain Olypos whose head is a lion’s, body is a goat, tail is a snake’s and who scatters flame from his mouth. Bellerophontes rides his winged horse Pegassos to fight with Chimera. Chimera attacks and Pegassos goes up into the sky. While coming down Bellerophontes hits Chimera with his lance and inters him to the underground but chimera goes on scattering flame.
The myth has been told in Anatollia for thousands of years. According to the myth the eternal flame is the flame coming from Chimera’s mouth.
To celebrate Bellerophontes victory the people of Olypos arranges a race. The athletes burn their torches with Chimera’s sacred flame and run down to the Olypos City. This is the first Olypic Games in Anatolia. In time many different brances of sport are added to this rice and the Olympic torch is the symbol of the eternal flame of Chimera’s flame today. (It has been translated from Turkish so sorry if the English is a little bad).

We arrived there just as it was beginning to get dark which was good cause we could see the flames in the light and dark. Shailen and I really liked sitting watching the flames burning and if it wasn't for our driver waiting for us down below we could have stayed there a lot longer. Although it is in the middle of nowhere we defiantly think it is worth going to.

Me showing off my amazing powers.

And of course Shailen copying me! LOL

By this point we were pretty tired so we headed back to town, managed to find some cheap food, had a "hot" (COLD) shower and crashed into bed.

Antalya's clock tower.

We decided the next day to visit Aspendos another ruined city that was founded in 1000 BC by the Greeks.

Aspendos Bridge.

The beautiful view from the bridge.

Although there are the ruins of a basilica, agora and nymphaeum the most spectacular are the theatre and the Roman aqueduct.

The remains of the aqueduct which runs for 15km.

The theatre was built during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-80 AD). In the early 1930's Ataturk himself decided it was to be restored and there are still events held there. It fits an audience of 10,000 people and if there was something on while we were there we would have defiantly gone because it would be such an experience.

The outside of the theatre.

The detail above the stage.

Half of the Theatre beautifully restored.

In the passageway behind the seats.

Shailen making himself cozy on a stone bench.

Looking down on the Theatre from Theatre hill.

Unfortunately there wasn't but maybe another time. We spent the day getting lost on the little paths on top of the hill and then made our way back to Antalya.

More ruins of Aspendos.

We had brought bus tickets to our next destination Pammukale which was only a few hours away. So we jumped on the bus and headed off.