Friday, September 15
Today we went to three different ancient ruins. Two cities, and one temple site.
The first city we visited was Priene, a lovely, genteel but small town, I imagine to be somewhat like Saratoga CA. (allow me my diversions). It has a cool temple to Athena, as well as a hospital, theatre, agora, and all the usual things which make up a city. Small but beautiful. Amazingly, all of the columns of the temple to Athena still stood until 1958 when a major earthquake hit the area. Now there are five which are re-assembled by archeologists.
next we visited Didyma, a temple dedicated to Apollo. The site was massive, under construction for some 200 years, and never finished.
Finally, at Miletus (which is connected to Didyma by a sacred road) we saw the planned layout of the largest city in ancient Asia Minor - a complete town, theatre, square, and Roman baths which are still quite intact (below).
The town of Selcuk we are staying in right now is very small but a hub for acient sites. It had its own aqueduct which supplied the town of Ephesus (see yesterday's post). Below you can see how modern life fits in between the towers of the aqueduct here, just as it does in Istanbul.
We love Turkey.... the people are friendly and the ancient sites are numerous and completely open. In most other areas of the world one needs to look at antiquity from afar. Here you can touch, smell, feel the centuries. Tomorrow will be our last full day in Turkey. We go to Pamukkale and Hieropolis.
Oh - and check out photo friday!
The first city we visited was Priene, a lovely, genteel but small town, I imagine to be somewhat like Saratoga CA. (allow me my diversions). It has a cool temple to Athena, as well as a hospital, theatre, agora, and all the usual things which make up a city. Small but beautiful. Amazingly, all of the columns of the temple to Athena still stood until 1958 when a major earthquake hit the area. Now there are five which are re-assembled by archeologists.
next we visited Didyma, a temple dedicated to Apollo. The site was massive, under construction for some 200 years, and never finished.
Finally, at Miletus (which is connected to Didyma by a sacred road) we saw the planned layout of the largest city in ancient Asia Minor - a complete town, theatre, square, and Roman baths which are still quite intact (below).
The town of Selcuk we are staying in right now is very small but a hub for acient sites. It had its own aqueduct which supplied the town of Ephesus (see yesterday's post). Below you can see how modern life fits in between the towers of the aqueduct here, just as it does in Istanbul.
We love Turkey.... the people are friendly and the ancient sites are numerous and completely open. In most other areas of the world one needs to look at antiquity from afar. Here you can touch, smell, feel the centuries. Tomorrow will be our last full day in Turkey. We go to Pamukkale and Hieropolis.
Oh - and check out photo friday!
# posted by ~aer : 11:17 AM
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So happy you are loving Turkey. How amazing to know they have reconstructed those pillars and arches to memorialize their history. You seem to have a natural instinct to select locations rich in earthquake history - whether in on or out of the country. The home squeezed into the arches looks like it's about to collapse. I am betting the ancient arches have it pretty secure. I hope you enjoy Greece as much. I think you will. Much love and thanks for your e-mail! M
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# posted by 
: 6:12 AM PDT
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