Aphrodisias and On
Trip Start
Aug 11, 2007
1
38
68
Trip End
Nov 08, 2007
Pamukkale,
Turkey
Friday, September 21, 2007
Another easy drive and after a few hours we turned off the main road towards the ruins of Aphrodisias
The Monumental Gate at Aphrodisias
.Because it is so far from the cruise ship and the "Turkey in 1 week - 10 days" routes, Aphrodisias gets way less tourist traffic than Ephesus. It is a very large site and has as many well preserved major buildings as Ephesus, and while it doesn't seem to have had perhaps as much intensive archaeological diggings as Ephesus (eg it doesn't have anything like the terrace houses), it has been investigated very well and the interpretive information on the major ruins is very good. There is also a small museum which houses the major finds from the site. We were very impressed and very glad we'd made the detour (Chris comment - its still all broken stuff!). The ruins of Aphrodisias that you see are largely Roman and in AD100 - AD300, it was an important Roman centre., then a Byzantine one. It has one of the few well preserved stadiums, several mammoth public baths, a theatre and a temple, but probably the most impressive part of the ruins is the monumental gateway to the temple - truly grandiose!! Chris is most impressed at how these massive buildings were put together - particularly with the huge blocks of cut stone fitted perfectly together, even forming the gigantic arches that still stand to day. (He also thinks ancient Greek and Roman cities must have been filled with the sound of chipping rocks - day and night, for hundreds of years......)
A few more hours driving through more mountains (some of the mountain passes are pretty dramatic!) and valleys and we arrive in Pamukkale, our base for the next 2 nights. Pamukkale is another small town where a traditional Turkish life carries on amidst a tourist centred economy. We were tired, hot and dusty after roaming around Aphrodisias and our small pension had a swimming pool and beer, so instead of going our to see the sights, we had a beer and a swim and just generally lazed around for a few hours
In the remains of the stadium
! Pamukkale attracts the tourists for 2 reasons, the first, which most of the tourists come for, is the huge calcite deposit terraces that cascade in frozen white falls and billows off the cliff face above the town. This must be what the Pink and White Terraces in NZ must have looked like before they were destroyed in the Tarawera eruption. The other reason is the ruins of ancient Heiropolis, located on cliff heights.
Most of the tourists that come here are on packages - they arrive in big aircon coaches, stay overnight in big hotel complexes all located in a town a few kms away and only visit to see the terraces and bath in the mineral pools that formed these. A huge number seem to be Russians or East European.
Pamukkale village has managed to avoid most of the most dreadful parts of this (the downside being the villagers don't see most of the $$s spent by these tourists), but it does make it a much more pleasant and interesting place for us to stay!
We decided to go for a walk before dinner, which turned out to be a lot longer than originally planned, because despite its small size, we still managed to get ourselves lost in the little back streets of the town
The ornamental pool
. We found our way to the main part of town, right opposite the central part of the terraces, and watched the throngs of tourists packing these immense structures. It was just before sunset and many people were up on the terraces to watch this, but most of the package tours were leaving - a strange sight - all these beautiful Russian girls (who look like models) in teeny bikinis (cos they seem to only come to bathe (pose!!) in the mineral pools), wandering though a traditional Turkish village where many of the women who live there do not expose legs or arms and where traditional head scarves. We were even mildly offended - you wouldn't go wandering through town dressed like that in NZ or Australia - or I bet through Moscow or St Petersburg!!! Chris appreciated the aesthetics though.....We found our way back to the pension in time for dinner (which is generally later during Ramadan - around 8pm, so the people who are preparing and serving meals and who are mostly observing the fast, have about an hour to eat their meal, before we get served - they need it more than us!) In these smaller villages we are finding that the best meals are served in the pensions, so in Hotel Venus (the rooms are pink!!) here in Pamukkale, we sit down with the other guests to another great (and far too much) meal.
