Climbing a mountain for breakfast
Trip Start
Jan 06, 2006
1
10
120
Trip End
Sep 02, 2008
Dalyan,
Turkey
Monday, January 30, 2006
The funny thing about arriving in Dalyan is that a tout approached me, after I wandered about for ten minutes looking for the top choice in my guidebook, and asked me where I was going. Usually I say I have booked (even if it's not the case) but after looking a bit in this smallish town, I realised that there was a good chance it was closed for the season. He asked me where I was off to and he said it's across the river and closed for the season. Then he proceeded to give me directions to another place, and those directions took me right past the place I was originally seeking, which was where I bargained away my breakfast.
Then in the morning I crossed the river to go and see some ruins, like I do every day, but without any breakfast. And there was none to be had on the other bank anyway. It was still in the same era as when the ruins were built. Agrarian, unpaved roads and although there were some houses, it all seemed like a place time forgot to bring along into the present.
I was in Dalyan to see the ancient city of Kaunos and the Lydian rock tombs. Kaunos was originally a Lydian city (Lydian being the name for the ancient inhabitants of the area) that was occupied by the Persians, Greeks, Romans and then its harbour was conquered by a lot of silt (hope you aren't getting tired of this story; I know it's been similar a few times now. Because I'm not). There are a few staples to a site: baths, a market place, a late era church and a theatre. Sometimes a fountain and a castle. Blend them together and knock them down and you have a legitimate tourist attraction. Add some heat and then the tourists arrive. Otherwise there's just me (I have lost count now of how many sites I have visited where I have been the only visitor).
The one other thing that some sites have are necropoli (graveyards). Kaunos has an interesting sort of graveyard which comprises tombs carved into the side of a mountain. Not quite a graveyard in the strictest sense of the word though. A number of imitation buildings have been hewed out of a cliff to make façades which look a bit like ancient Greek temples. These are made though out of a continuous piece of stone. One has a broken column, like many sites do, but it hasn't fallen down because it is attached at the top! The carvers went to great efforts to make these look like real buildings, because they have carved them all the way around the back too. The only difference between these tombs and real buildings is that the insides don't really contain any "living space." Interestingly enough the area must make a good graveyard because the Turks have made the land directly next to it into a modern graveyard.
Kaunos also has a lofty hilltop acropolis, and although steep, and despite my hunger, I sort of stubbornly guided myself up the hill. Great view at the top: snow capped mountains to the East, the mediterranean to the West. A villiage below and pasture all around. Etcetera.
Hmm. This entry is dying at my fingertips for lack of drama. I wonder if I should have left it at the graveyard. I don't know about you but the line above about hill-climbing is a bit too dreary for my tastes. I mean, walking up a hill? Is that really worth writing about? And reading about? But that's what I did. I went to Kaunos and then climbed a hill. Then I took a bus to the next place I visited and I am going to write an entry about that. I hope that we will find it more entertaining than this one.
Until then.
