History and scenery

Tuesday 23 May

We left Fethiye at around 9:00am and headed inland to Pamukkale.  We were stopped once on the way at one of the usual police road blocks and this time as well as looking at my licence he asked for our passports.  No issues though, we were on the way again pretty quickly.

We arrived in Pamukkale at 11:55 and check in started at 12:00 midday, so that worked really well.  What wasn't as good was that our room is on the top (5th) floor and there is no lift.  The hotel dude carried one of our suitcases and I took the other.  The room though is quite spacious and has some views of the Travertines, so we are pretty happy.

We headed straight out to those Travertines as they were partly the inspiration for this trip, thanks to photos from our friends Jo P and Tracey Hogan from 30 years ago.  The Travertines are created from Limestone that comes up from hot springs.  Though many of the natural pools are now dry it was still pretty spectaular.  The main problem was that you are not allowed to walk on them in shoes and whilst we were pretty OK going up, they were quite painful coming down.  This area is very well known for people posting Instagram photos and there were a lot of posing going on - including a couple of women wearing angel wings courtesy of some professional photograpers.

At the top of the travertines there are the remains of a Roman city (Hieropolis) that dates back to around 100 AD. The city had one of the best preserved Theatres in Turkey as well as the usual Agora (marketplace), church, acropolis, necropolis and gates. As we were walking around we could see storm clouds gathering and distant thunder rumbling.  We kept going despite the risk of rain, but 45-60 minutes later the lightning/thunder got very close.  Two particularly loud, rumbling lots of thunder appeared to be only a kilometre or so away - we saw the lightning and the thunder came soon after and was very loud.  We were starting to look for cover, of which there was little, but after those two, nothing terrible eventuated.  Some rain did start to fall but by then we were near some buildings that ended up being a small museum.  We were pleased to go in and dry out a little and the museum had some lovely antiquities.

Next stop was Cleopatra's Pool, where it is reputed she swam.  The water comes from a hot spring and costs extra to swim in - around $10 for a maximum of two hours.  We took photos but were never planning a swim. 

Back down the hill via the Travertines and to the hotel, after spending a bit over 5 hours here for a total of 17570 steps.  We had also driven 199kms to get here.

Wednesday 24 May

We had been getting emails from Booking.com with various 'deals' for whichever city we were heading to and mostly ignoring them.  However a couple of days ago we received an email with a pretty good deal for a hot air balloon flight over the Travertines and Hieropolis.  So we had another very early morning with a 5:15 pickup.  As the balloons were inflating, the mist started rolling in, so we were a little concerned. We took off just after 6:00am and had some good early views of the travertines.  Our pilots were having a bit of fun and dropped us quite low - in fact we touched the water in a nearby large pond..  We lifted up again and it wasn't long before it was quite misty, meaning we could barely see Hieropolis - and the breeze took us away from the ruins and the travertines.  We continued to rise and eventually hit 1200metres.  We enjoyed the flight but the Cappadocia one was better - and the 'champagne' on landing turned out to be non-alcoholic grape juice.

Back to the hotel for breakfast and check out, whereupon the clerk asked us where we were heading next. When we said Ephesus, he strongly suggested a visit to Aphrodisias, named after Aprodite, the Greek goddess of love. We looked at maps and decided we could fit it in and it was certainly worth it. One building in particular, the Tetrapylon was very impressive and different to anything we had seen before. Apparently Aprhodisias was well known for it's sarcophogus building and there were many examples of those.  Many blocks with 'wreaths and masks' had also been collected and were displayed in two massive walls of around 200 blocks each.  The weather was not behaving again and it started raining after we had been there about an hour, so we went into the musuem where many magnificent sculptures were displayed.  Another half an hour or so in there and then back into the car.

We arrived in Selcuk around 2:15 and checked in, then went quickly to Ephesus arriving at 3:00pm.  Ephesus is another sprawling Greco/Roman city that dates back to around the 10th Century BC - though there is evidence of human habitation as far back as 6000 BC.  The most famous building is 'The Library of Celsus' and it is amazing, standing 17 metres high and 21 metres wide.

There are also a group of 'Terrace Houses that were completly encased by a modern roof and walls - paid for by the Austrian Govt.  The terrace houses had quite a few frescoes on the walls and mosiac floors, hence the coverings.  They were in very good condition, particularly the floors.

We finished exploring Ephesus at close to 6:00pm, after 3 hours of wandering.

18300 steps and 243km today.

Thursday 25th May

Our Hotelier had recommended the Ephesus Musuem in Selcuk and whilst at Ephesus yesterday a few items were mentioned as being in this museum, so after checking out, we decided on a visit. It was well worth going to as there were many statues, sarcophagi, friezes, coins and various small tools, gems etc.  The earliest coin was quite small, think half the size of your little fingernail, and was dated from the 7th century BC!  It is really interesting walking these sites and museums and seeing names that you know from history and movies, such as Julius Ceasar, Marcus Aurelius (Gladiator), Cleopatra and so many others.

Marcus Aurelias

Unfinished statue

Forgot to mention that running through the middle of Selcuk, quite close to our hotel, and again on the way to the museum was an old Roman Aqueduct, that originally served Ephesus, some 4kms East.

Our next stop was Pergamon, which proved quite difficult to find.  Maps.me that I have mentioned previously, took us to a different site altogether.  It didn't look right so I turned the data on my phone and checked Google Maps.  Pergamon was about 15 minutes away, so we headed there instead. Like many of the cities we have been to, Pergamon can trace some kind of habitation to the 8th Century BC, but the remains we viewed are from Roman times, around 100BC.  It wasn't as well preserved as some we have been to, but the theatre was interesting in that it was built on the side of the hill and was very steep. The main remaining structure, the Alter of Zeus, is incredibly tall (12 metres) and stunning.

After leaving we drove for around an hour to the village of Ayvalik.  Nothing of note here, except it is on the coast and we were hoping for a good sunset. Fortunately it was the best we have seen in Turkey.

12839 steps and 251kms today.