Afrodisias - Gün 2

The second day we woke up and had some traditional Turkish kahvaltı, then headed to the tour company for their "Guaranteed Afrodisias Trip- 9:30am". Of course, this being Turkey, "Guaranteed" means "Only if there's 4 people who want to go." So, the company scrounged up another tourist, and we paid a bit extra.

The driving through the countryside took us through pomegranate, apple, and orange orchards. We saw fields of cotton and corn all growing in the valley, surrounded by mountains. We passed through villages of varying sizes- with cars, without cars, tractors, village children...

At one point in time Afrodisias was a capital of a Roman province, largely developed by the sponsorship of a wealthy native. Most of the buildings were from around the 2nd century AD.


The Tetrapylon- a decorative entrance to the city


The Bouleuterion- a sort of city senate house


The Afrodisias Stadium which seats 30,000 people. It had special seats reserved for important people, as well as Tanners and Goldsmiths
The stadium had a few cats that could spot of soft heart from across the 270m length of the structure. So, we gave a cat a few pretzel sticks.


Turkish schoolchildren holding a race in the Stadium
There were a fair number of French tourists, but we also ran into a Turkish school group. They held a few sprinting races in the Stadium and the winner received a prize of 5 YTL.


Various ruins at Afrodisias


Afrodisias Theatre


Screaming faces- decorative accents for the theatre?


Cats begging for food
We sat down for a rest at the end and ate some of our snacks. We were quickly mobbed by 4 kittens. The cats here eat anything- bread, cookies, and pretzels. It was hard to resist their mews, so dad fed them his left over Tomato A la turca Dorito crumbs.

We were dropped off at the Denizli Otogar around 4pm, which meant we had to spend 8 hours waiting for the next bus to Ankara. We walked a bit around the city and stumbled upon the shopping district. This entertained us for a few hours, but we headed back to the Otogar when things started closing up. It wasn't so bad, but it was a loooong time to wait.

Pamukkale - Gün 1

We arrived at Denizli's Otogar at 6:30am after our 6.5 hour bus ride; the sun was rising and the smog was just barely visible over the city. We successfully maneuvered our way onto a bus to Pamukkale (pronounced pah-MOO-kah-leh), and settled in for the ride.

We got off in the center of the village (pop. 2500) and were immediately approached by a pension owner who took us to his hotel: "You don't have to stay. It's okay. Just look. Come, lady." So, we looked. As we walked away, the price of the room dropped 5 YTL.


Peppers drying on a balcony
The next 15-30 minutes were spent walking around the village- close to the main street, looking at various shops, restaurants, and other buildings. Children were walking about in their school uniforms, but no one else was really around.

The aforementioned pension owner found us again, while on his scooter, and offered to help us find whatever hotel we were looking for (except we weren't looking for anything). We ended up going back to his pension, and taking the room with private bathroom for 25 lira ("Special price for first people!"). Such a persistant salesman should be rewarded, especially since he was the only one trying and it is the off season.

After a rather long nap, we headed for the Travertines and Hierapolis.


Ice-like calcium (rock) formations
Pamukkale was formed by calcium-rich water running over a hill. The calcium dries and forms hard, ridged surfaces which can be tough on the feet. For much of the climb upwards (and downwards) shoes weren't allowed, so as to preserve the beauty of the travertines. The water was warm, and it felt good on our feet which were irritated by the calcium rock.


Water running over the calcium-coated ground


A dried calcium-coated ground



The calcium-formations have the appearance of snow, but the weather was quite warm- around 70 degrees.


Half-filled travertine pools
The travertines above are naturally formed, and people are no longer allowed to climb into them. There are several artificial, cement travertines along the path up the hill.


A Roman theatre in the Hierapolis
The warm mineral baths attracted Romans, and they built a spa city atop the travertines. Hierapolis had more Roman ruins than I had seen in Rome itself.


St. Philip Martyrium
The Martyrium of St. Philip the Apostle was high above the rest of Hierapolis. I'm not even sure you could see it from below, but it was beautiful. It involved much climbing over rocks and hills to get to.


Tombs in the Hierapolis Necropolis


Someone's Speedo-ed behind (see the upper left hand corner) always ruins such photos.
Hierapolis had a very nice mineral pool, complete with real Roman ruins. The water was some of the clearest I had ever seen, and it was supposed to cure all kinds of health problems. However, it did not manage to fix me.

We spent some time by the pool, eating ice cream and drinking fresh pomegranate juice. There was a view of the Roman theatre from some angles and lots of cats begging for food (as usual).


Above, you can see the white travertines at sunset. It also shows part of the way/hill which we had to climb up and down.


A sunset over the Travertines

Our pension owner prepared us dinner that night (typical chicken with tomato-y stuff, peppers, onions, etc., a salad, bread, and small sugary bread dessert) and we went to bed.

Dad Varıyor

After wandering through the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, the Citadel, and various bits of Ulus, my father finally arrived at ODTÜ's gate. We took a quick tour of campus, ate some Turkish kebab, and headed for the ASHTİ Otogar.

Hattuşa - Gün 2

2:30 am
We hear banging on the streets. They've begun pounding the drums, waking people up to eat before the sun rises. Early Ramazan breakfast. Too early.
We go back to sleep as the pounding travels away from our pension in the town center.

8:00 am
We wake up to the sound of rain. Not again. But, we decide to go on with our day and opt to use the shared showers in the hallway bathrooms, rather than the shower planted directly in the corner of our room. It was just odd.

We ate our kahvaltı/breakfast, prepared by our host, and headed to Hattuşa for the day. By the time we left, it had stopped raining.


Torben, conversing with a burro
As we approached the site, several men came running out of their homes and cars, trying to get us to buy their "Hattuşa Lion" statues (we eventually both ended up buying one).


We continued on to Büyük Mabed (Large Temple), where we saw yesterday's cows again. Seeing as Boğazkale was overrun with cows, sheep, geese, and goats, it made perfect sense that these 3000 year old ruins were also populated. We were the only visitors to the site, until we reached the very end and a bunch of tour buses showed up.


A view of the large temple, one of the best preserved ruins


The green Ramses Stone in Buyuk Mabed


A view from our 5 km walk


"Lion's Gate", one of a handful of gates in the wall that we were able to visit


The exit to a Hittite (pre-arch) tunnel.


The remains of some smaller temples, seen from afar


A view of the village from the ruins


A golden tree situated in front of the "Big Castle"


A view from the road to Yazılkaya
After our 3 hour walk through the hilly Hattuşa site, we headed towards Yazılkaya, but a car picked us up and gave us a quick lift there. Yazılkaya was once a religious temple, famous for its reliefs.


Reliefs in the narrow gallery.


A close-up of a well-preserved relief

After Yazılkaya, we headed back towards Boğazkale, now 3km away.


A house and gate along our way back


The bronze head of Atatürk, proudly displayed in front of a village school.

We gathered our belongings, bought some more bread, and headed off along the road to Yozgat. A man in a tractor stopped us, and gave us a bunch of apples for free. We were now fully stocked with food.

There aren't any dolmuş on Sunday, so we had to hitch a ride. As usual, it started raining, but a man in a car picked us up. It took a short while to haggle him down from his original price of 30 lira to 20 lira, but we were running low on cash. The Boğazkale bank didn't have ATM facilities.

So, we made it home around 7pm without any major problems.