My Life in Ruins

The last three days involved visiting the ruins of three ancient cities: Heiropolis, Aphrodisias and Pergamon. Last Thursday, we visited Heiropolis – an ancient Hellenistic Greek city. It was famous for its hot springs and its high quality wool fabrics and dyes. Atahan had arranged in advance for a cart with a driver to take us around the site and that was very helpful because, as interesting as it all was, there was a lot of space in between the ruins which would have taken us hours walk. Our first stop was at the “cemetery” where you could still see the crypts where people had been buried.

We next stopped at one of the gates to the town which, Atahan said was a city of about 100,000 people. The wide street was a bit reminiscent of Ephesus although on a smaller scale.

Our next stop was at the Amphitheatre which was quite amazing.

From there, we went to see the amazing calcified pools which Pamakkale is best know for. Mineral-rich thermal waters flowing down white travertine terraces on a nearby hillside had created beautiful pools of blue water against the snow-coloured stone. There were lots of people wading through them.

From our hotel, we could see the white travertine hillside from the pool and bar area. We enjoyed sitting on the patio; however, it is a big hotel and the tour groups (about 250 people) which is so not me! Dinner was in a room which held at least 300 and was a buffet which totally didn't appeal to me.

Friday, we drove from Pamukkale to Foca but our first stop was the ancient city of Aphroditias. This one of the less-visited treasures of Turkiye and certainly not as well known as Ephesus even though Atahan thinks Aphroditias is more impressive in many ways. It is all about location - proximity to ports, other popular tourist attractions or bigger cities - so Ephesus gets the cruise ships but places like Aphroditias don't get as many visitors; sadly this also means they don't necessarily receive the notoriety they deserve. The plus side, however, is when you do visit these sites, they are not mobbed by tourists and can be seen in peace and quiet which enhances the experience. For example, it was empty when we arrived and we only saw about 5 other visitors during the hour and a half we were there. That, for me, made the visit even more special.

The site is quite big - although not as big as either Ephesus or Hieropolis - with an amphitheatre, stadium, massive gates, the old agora, a baptistry and even the ruins of some houses.

Later in the day, we drove to Foca, where Atahan has a home and where his mother lives. It is a very charming seaside town and the old part is basically a fishing village with the pier lined with bars and restaurants. Atahan seemed to know everyone he saw - but, after all, he grew up here and still spends a lot of time in his "summer home" here. Even the owner of the guest house where I stayed for two nights seemed to be best buddies with him. We ate on the pier and, on the way back to the guesthouse, there was a full moon behind the three old windmills on the hill. The following day, the weather was dreadful so, aside from going out for a short drive and much later having a pizza, the day was pretty forgettable.

Yes, the pizza was served with the choice of a knife and fork or scissors!

Sunday, we left Foca and stopped at the last ruins we'd visit on this trip, Pergamon. We drove way up a hill to get there. Pergamon or Pergamum, also referred to by its modern Greek form Pergamos, was a rich and powerful ancient Greek city in Aeolis. It is located 26 kilometres from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a promontory on the north side of the river Caicus and northwest of the modern city of Bergama.

From Bergama, we continued driving north and stopped at Behramkale for the night. We stayed in the old part, a village right on the water. There were dozens of cats hanging around - this seems to be fairly typical in Turkiye.