Back to Istanbul

We spent the whole day in the bus, heading back to Istanbul, except for when we hopped out on the ferry to cross back from Asia to Europe.

Goodbye, Asia

Also had an excellent lunch at a restaurant I didn't catch the name of in a town I can't remember. It was the last day of Ramadan and there were lines at every ATM. Ahmet said it was a special day; people got paid early so they would have money for the coming holiday.

I read Get Shorty and enjoyed it.

Hot springs, white cliffs

Before I left Australia I showed my boss, whose husband is Turkish, where I was going in Turkey.

"Pamukkale," she said. "Huh."

"What's up? Not good?"

"No, no," she thought about it for a moment. "I'd be interested to see what you think of it."

"Why?"

"Well, it's nice. But when we were there it was just full of... Russian bogans."

"Oh," I said.  "Boganskis?"*

"Sure. Boganskis."

Hierapolis (modern day Pamukkale) was famous way back when for the pools of Aphrodite, the hot springs which were supposed to have healing qualities and provide the gifts of youth. In those ancient times, gullible people, called by the promise of such bollocks, flocked there to swim in the legendary pools.

In that regard, not much has changed.

I was in it for the ruins

The choice to drive out on a blazing summer day and swim in hot pools left this Australian tourist a little baffled, but there's no accounting for the actions of boganskis, who had arrived in the hundreds (thousands?). They marched up and down the white cliffs in tiny bathing suits and kilograms of gold jewelry, waiting for the healing waters to kick in.

The cliffs were stunning

Unrestricted tourist access in the 80s and 90s has blackened the top of the cliffs, and people are no longer permitted to walk out much further than the top level of the cliffs. But in the blazing sunlight the white faces shone with a dazzling brilliance.

The effect was ruined somewhat by the hundreds of people who had come for no other reason than to sit in the man-made pools and sunbathe.

Lucky for me there was more excellent Greek and Byzantine architecture to see, including the Necropolis on the far side of the site.

And a round tower! Well, some of a round tower.

Hierapolis was huge; the city sprawled across the top of the hills about the cliffs. A minibus offered a quick drive from one end of the site to the other, and it was a welcome relief from walking in the heat.

We were driving at the time so I don't know what this is.

The Necropolis itself was well worth seeing. I had no idea that Roman graves were so elaborate, and they were particularly interesting after seeing the burial rites of the Scandinavians, whose only lasting burial ornamentations seem to be cairns and barrows. I saw more runestones for sons and families who died in other countries than I did markers for the local dead.

The Necropolis goes all up and along the hillside

I was, to be honest, a little under the weather that day, and I appreciated the opportunity to down a powerade and head to our hotel early for our tour's last night on the road.  The whole next day would be spent heading back to Istanbul.



(not Constantinople)



*I've written this account like I came up with the portmanteau 'Boganskis,' when in fact this honour belongs to my mother.

To the Black Sea!

A quiet day in Istanbul

Wonders of the world

We woke up in Kuşadası and the weather was, again, stunning.

Kuşadası, fondly known as Ada by its inhabitants, is named for the island we could see from our hotel, which I noticed immediately because of its badass castle. The hotel also offered a view out across the Aegean and the constant in and out of cruise ships.

The island and, through the haze, Samos

Our first stop was to be the House of the Virgin Mary.

"Today is the feast of the assumption of the Virgin Mary," Serina said, when we were on the bus.

"What's that?"

"In the Catholic church, it's the day that Mary was taken up into heaven."

"Does Ahmet know that?"

Ahmet was our tour guide, and he did not. We stopped to get some water and other supplies and he called ahead to a colleague and found out that the road to the House was full of pilgrims, completely cut off.  "So we will go to Ephesus first."

"What do you know about Ephesus?" Serina asked on the bus. "Teach me."

I had, through the visits to Troy and Pergamon, acquired something of a reputation as an insufferable know-it-all. But it was nice that someone would embrace this and ask what I knew.

"Literally nothing," I said. "Except that the Temple of Artemis used to be there."

"What's that?"

"A temple? Dedicated to Artemis."

"What happened to it?"

"Earthquakes. And the Romans."

Always the Romans

Ephesus, as it turned out, was also a little busy. Every tour group which had planned to go to the House had rerouted and converged on the ancient city. Ahmet did his best to stay calm, but he was stunned.

The heat and the crowds made the site uncomfortable, and we pushed through our tour. After a brief wander through the city's prestigious Hercules Gates and along the market street of the agora, we saw the public latrines.

Because everyone loves latrines

"They did not flush, the water was always running," Ahmet said.

"Where are the women's toilets?" somebody asked.

"We don't know. Let's move on to see the library and the brothel."

The library of Celsus

The library reminded me of the Market Gate of Miletus from the Pergamon Museum, but more impressive; the statues and many of the inscriptions could be seen. Ahmet told us that there was a time when this contained 12,000 scrolls. It also served as the tomb of Celsus, the governor who paid for it to be built.

Statues on the library

After the difficulty in getting into and around Ephesus, we were due for a break. We did not get one.

"This is the brothel, or the love house," Ahmet said with a grin. "We are standing above the second agora, the harbour market," there was no water in sight. The brothel, he told us, was advertised by a sign in the agora; a broken heart and a foot with a long middle toe would point potential customers in the right direction.

"I wanted to take you down the Marble Road but I have just noticed that it has been closed so... we might just have to carry on to the amphitheater."

Tough crowd

The amphitheater was... it was huge.

Really very big.

"Will we get to see the Temple of Artemis?" I asked as we passed the baths.

"It is stones in a field and a statue," Ahmet said. "We saw most of it in the Hagia Sophia."

Ah the Romans. Never let anything go to waste.

More things taken by Germans

In Berlin I visited the Pergamon Museum. The primary attraction of the museum are a pile of statues taken from the Temple of Zeus (and the stairs, pillars and altar) from Pergamon in Asia Minor. I never gave much consideration as to whether I would see the place from whence they came.

The view from Pergamon

The same day we went to Troy we took the long, winding road up to Pergamon, high above the countryside. Pergamon was built as a center of religion and culture, rather than commerce. It's position made it difficult to get to, but it had rich patrons and attracted the elite of Asia Minor.

The view of no river

Like the other ancient cities we visited, Pergamon suffered a number of earthquakes. These, combined with the silting of the Caicus and the growth of Ephesus, led to its demise.

Pergamon was the first place I have seen a proper Acropolis. Though the altar was taken by the Germans, the layout of the Acropolis is still clear today. I was interested in the way the marble structures were built; the foundations of the building were of heavy stone, with a marble facade, and not of solid marble slabs.

Once I saw this, it seemed obvious. Who would build foundations out of marble?

Acropolis: Note the change in colour of the stones

But the decorative sections, the pillars and carvings, were all done in marble.

It took us, in our bus, a long time to wind back and forth across the mountain to reach the city; I can only imagine what a hassle it would have been in ancient times. Nevertheless, the view from the top was stunning. If the day had been less hazy, we might have seen to the sea.

Pillars and the marble facade

It was an eight hour day, with a lot of time spent in the sun and the heat, and we were all exhausted when we reached Kuşadası. The most impressive ancient city, Ephesus, had to wait for the morning.

Horses for courses

There are about nine layers of Troy buried where Troy used to be. The one Homer wrote about is the seventh Troy (that's seven up, not seven down). There were a couple more built on top, Roman cities which decreased in importance as Constantinople became a power.

Walls at Troy, made of stone

The seventh layer was also the largest, and showed evidence of slaughter and fire. Other cities were destroyed by earthquakes and cultural change as people migrated from the east. Each layer shows different building materials and technology as the people living there progressed.

The view from the site of Athena's Temple. There used to be water visible from here.

The surrounding country side has also changed, primarily due to the silting of ancient waterways. Troy once sat overlooking the Hellespont, and it was this position which gave it power over trade in ancient times.

I took a lot of photos of wells

The size of the walls, at all levels of the site, is emphasised by the support structures - the huge foundations, gates and ramps which allowed daily life to go in in and around the walled city. It was again testament to what mankind can achieve with nothing more than math, determination and limitless free labour.

Slavery!

All the ancient cities we visited were places of trade and culture. The culture was demonstrated by the amphitheaters, where people could meet to discuss politics or matters of importance and so on.

People, not slaves.

And of course, no visit to Troy would be complete without viewing the Schliemann Pit, the spot where German 'archaeologist' and treasure-hunter, Heinrich Schliemann, dug through layer after layer of Troy until he found the treasure he was certain was left in the stories of Homer's stories. These jewels were, as it happens, from the second Troy, and therefore predated Homer's Troy by several thousand years.

Really it's just a huge hole.

But that's okay, because he found items of vital historical importance. Which he took back to Germany. And his wife took to Russia.

Our guide told us that Turkey has asked Russia if they could have the treasure from Troy back.

Russia said, "No."