Ancient Rome in Turkey

Little did I know that when we were going to visit Turkey that we were going to see such fantastic Greek and Roman ruins. I had a pretty good understanding of the region's history from about 1204, but before that I really had no clue. So it was fantastic to see some of the ruins that exist in Aegean Turkey.

I have photos to the right of Ephesus, (and here and here), Priene, Miletus, and Didyma. They were all fantastic - we drove from Sirince to the last three places in one day (we left about 10:00 and returned about 6:00). The driving, as the driving was in Cappadocia, was easy and uneventful. The gas was expensive, but that was about the most exciting thing about it.

Outside of Ephesus, which is an easy bus ride for the Cruise ships to get to, there were almost no people in these ruins. Even in Ephesus there were not too many people. We only had to wait a couple of minutes to have any one particular area to ourselves. The history in these places is truly astounding.

Doreen wondered aloud more that once what history was being taught in the schools in Turkey. We speculated that they are being taught that this is the history of the area, but not the history of their people. It may be that this is not being taught much at all. The driver who took us to and from the airport had never been to these ruins before he carted one of the other couples at the hotel on the same route we drove ourselves. That is sad, in a way.

Also, as you can see in many of the photos, a lot of the "stuff" is just lying around. It would have been extremely easy to put a small carved capital, or another piece into a backpack and walk out undisturbed. I would imagine that the Turks are losing many pieces this way. There is nobody watching too closely, nor does there seem to be anyone at the airport preventing the wholesale removal of antiquates. It is sort of sad.

In Selcuk, there are the remnants of an ancient aqueduct right in town. On top of each column was a nesting pair of storks:

When we ate in Selcuk, we went to a place recommended in one of the guide books. I thought it would be packed, but there was only one other couple (an older couple from Tucson) eating there. It is called Ejders, and the food was great.

Here is a photo of my "mixed grill":


There is a small museum in Selcuk that has some wonderful pieces, including bits of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the World:

The only thing standing from that temple is one column in a lonely, muddy field. We did not walk out to it, but you can see it in my photos. There is a pair of storks nesting on top if it as well.

We did, of course, have to buy a rug. Below is the rug shop (owned by the cousin of the driver I mentioned above) where we stopped. When we walked in, the owned (the one on crutches) and his two helpers (one is sitting there next to Doreen. The other, his brother, had left to get tea) were lounging around on the rugs (inside). I don't think that they believed me when I said we were coming back.


I started off by telling him we were not interested in buying any rugs. He said fine, but wanted to show me some anyway. After about an hour or so were were getting ready to leave, as we really didn't want to buy any rugs. But he kept trying to find out which rugs we likes best. Needless to say, after a long and good natured set of negotiations, we did but a couple of small rugs.