Chimaera Olympos

13/04/2013- 14/04/2013 - Olympos

Hi again!

After our time in Goreme we took an overnight bus to Antalya and then another bus to Olympos which is known for its 'tree house' accommodation, ancient ruins and the Chimera Flames which are natural gas flames coming out the side of the mountain.

We stayed at Bayram's tree …

11-21-08

Day 6

I woke up at 7 AM and caught the 800 bus to Denizli and waited for two hours there to catch my next bus to Anatlaya, which was five hours away. The Turks have been extremely nice to me, but at the same time extemely ignorant. I am not exaggerating when I say 95% of the people here smoke cigarettes. It is bad. I mean …

Turkey and I have not been friends this week. More than once I contemplated getting on a plane to Thailand with the pup and not looking back. Something about lying on a white sandy beach with a tropical drink and without rocks or creepy men sounds quite amazing.

However, the internship in Africa is calling my heart with such intensity I …

... yacht. We could have definitely spent more time here! Making our way southeast, we stopped to check out 'Chimaera' at the city of Olympos. According to Greek mythology, the Lycian hero Bellapheron and his winged horse Pegasus slay the Chimaera (a ...

... that I was coming here; Olympos has one of the best beaches on this long stretch of coastline and it also hosts the mystical Chimaera - an natural flame that has burnt here over the ages. Haven't seen one of them before so had better stop by if I'm ...

... by riding for 1/2 hour, and then hiking up a mountain path for 20 minutes. The effort was worth it, though, because the Chimaera is one of those semi-unexplained natural phenomenons, and the effect is pretty magical. The lack of safety precautions and ...

... and had a quick swim in the Mediterranean. After dinner I decided to go up into the mountains and check out the chimaera. This is a naturally occurring phenomenon where eternal flames sprout right out of the mountainside. It was a nice climb to get up ...

... city is wonderfully overgrown and fun to explore with its slightly earie and mystical feeling. At night we hiked 5 km up to the chimaera - gas lit flames coming from under the rocks, which according to a legend told by Homer, are created by a ...

... beside the warm sapphire waters of the Med, then up into the hills, lies a fabled monster and a modern wonder. The ancient Chimaera, where tongues of fire lick out from the rocky ground, giving rise to the tales of the legendary fire-breathing monster ...

... and said that he is a miserable old man just looking to pick a fight with someone! One evening, we headed up to the famous Chimaera where there are flames burning out of the rocks.  It is said that in the 2nd century BC, the people that lived here ...

... to wash off all the salt water! We had a buffet dinner at 7pm, which was delicious. Come 8pm we set off to Mount Chimaera which has an area of permanent gas vents. Yanartaş (Turkish for flaming rock) consists of some two dozen vents in the ground, ...

... shade before heading back up to the camp. After another amazing dinner we went on an excursion to the Chimaera Flames. These natural flames have been buring on Mount Olympos for centuries with many a story made up as to how and why they are there. One of ...

5/30 I finally found a little piece of Texas in Turkey!!! Olympos is known as a backpackers paradise because of its get-away-from-it-all feel and complete absence of hotels. There are no tour busses, no paved roads and not a single mosque. It was ...