One day in Turkiye

Today, we sampled the coast of Turkey, or as it us now pronounced, Türkiye.

We stopped in Antalya at a berth next to the marina, a couple of miles outside the centre. To be honest, it was a lovely spot overlooking some of the most expensive boats in private hands, the mountain range and the trees.

My trip for the day proved more mountain goat rather than strenuous, so, like two others, I decided not to go up the high heights (really more suited to 40 to 50 year olds, or younger). Instead, I wandered around the necropolis, which was by the bus.

The site here hasn't been restored, it's been left as it was found. It's clear each one of the sarcophagii had been robbed. Lids had been prized off, sides had been smashed open, and anything that had been there was long gone.

There was a fresh excavation going on at this level where a round pillar was being uncovered. This was at the entrance to a large temple which had also been at this level, facing the necropolis. 

Like all of this part of the Mediterranean, evidence of Roman and pre-Roman settlements litter the area. For me, the interesting part has been the linking of the stories of that time with the places in which they happened. Troy, Athena, Aphrodite and Alexander the Great, Nero etc. Even parts of St Paul's wanderings as written about in the Bible are evidenced here.

After a long stay here we moved back down to sea level.

We drove to a superb museum in the centre of Antalya, which is reportedly the best in Türkiye. I would agree, but unfortunately we had little time there, no more than thirty minutes, forty at most. I could have spent a happy morning there and still only began to scratch the surface.

The richness of finds are being returned to their place of origin, much from USA which has vast stores of artifacts from this region (think some has come from UK too).

The collection of statues from varying dates was unbelievable and made the few we had in London seem remarkably under-representative of the richness of sculpting presence in that era.

By far the most surprising was the one of Alexander the Great. He was, indeed, a handsome young man.

The trip was very long, longer than expected so when we return to the ship we managed to grab something and chips from the stern of the boat. Fortunately, they kept it open for us. 

It's a shame Termessos was so out of my reach. Too many injuries to my ankles and hip, all of which began to speak as we began the incline.

No, I don't do inclines (not at a 45° angle) any more.