Elaiussa Sebaste 3

We did stay another day. Inertia. In the realm of productivity we at least listened to several more audio-tapes on ancient Greek history and culture and watched a few more video-tapes on classical archaeology. We now have a deeper understanding of the origins of Athenian "democracy" and of C-14 and thermal-luminescence, although we remain what might be termed "surface" archaeologists. I am still waiting for that jadeite hafted axe to wash up before me on the beach at Carnac. Oh, we did also clean out and reorganize a bit, for the thousandth time.

Seeing this sarcophogus on the hill behind our

"campground" and

These temple columns moved me to walk up the hill

Past the amphitheatre, and a great view of the larger complex

To the village, and where many of the best smaller

specimens now reside

Where work, real work, continues unchanged for aeons

Through a sizeable Roman necropolis, adapted now for

more contemporary needs

Still pushin' up daisies (nasturtiums?) after 2,000 years!

I never did get to the temple or the big sarcophogus--too much private property--people are friendly and welcoming, but one doesn't want to push it.

So I walked back down to the beach and tried my hand,

again, at fishing off these ancient rocks and pilings; I only

lost one lure and bobber before being reminded that I do

not have the patience to be a fisherman, particularly a

clueless fisherman



Wednesday morning we did finally and reluctantly

depart our little refuge at Elaiussa Sebaste; its GPS will be

in Vicki's "practical highlights" on the website

But not without acknowledging and feeding our canine

guardians of the past several days; particularly after

Romania, I have come to despise these feral dogs; but at

this beach, this big guy and his lady-friend (off shopping

when we left) exhibited the characteristics of territoriality and

loyalty for which the species is best known; they literally

guard the campers, lounging nearby but reacting fiercely

to any intruders; I gave them probably a kilo of some

Turkish spam I decided not to eat myself...which may keep

them going until the next campers arrive this weekend

Elaiussa Sebaste 2

Here are some pix from Elaiussa Sebaste across the highway...villa, agora, theater, and more. Incredibly, to us, this place is barely mentioned in the guidebooks.

Looking up from another spare parts pile toward the theatre

The Italian archaeologists identified three different levels of

settlement here: first, a Roman villa; then, the town agora

or marketplace; then, a Byzantine church; six hundred years

of habitation and development...and perhaps some Hittites

before that; anyhow, the intact mosaic here is from the villa

One dome of the Byzantine church

Toothsome mosaic fish

Greek (Byzantine) inscription near the theatre (which they

might well have regarded with archaeological interest)

In the theatre, center stage, I deliver some favorite lines

from Plautus (Pseudolus; A Funny Thing Happened on

the Way to the Forum)

View from center stage; the site is right under current

residents..."Abdul, you'll never guess what they found in

the back yard..."

Vomitorium (seriously)

View from the nosebleed section back toward the harbor and

our campground



Back toward the north end of the harbor, much more

structure beneath the dunes

I love arches...

Elaiussa Sebaste 1

So, after Mersin, the tollway ended and we got on the D400 coastal road, and marveled at the resort/beach development all along here, condos and pansiyons and what-have-you, and then--what was that?!--we pass a collection of Roman ruins, make a U-turn ("when possible," as Tom says), and resolve to park in the shade, have lunch, and explore the site. While I look at the archaeological signage, Vicki heads off into the adjoining municipal park/beach, and, through international RV sign language with a fellow (Turkish) RVer, ascertains it is indeed OK to over-night here. We pull in, find a shady spot about 50 feet from the ruins and 150 feet from the beach, and have been here now 4 days and 3 nights. We might leave tomorrow. Maybe not. There are other campers, tourists, swimmers, pick-nickers, fisherman, and two dogs that patrol the area. The ruins are far more extensive than we had first seen. It is an entire early empire Roman port city, fed by three different aquaducts. The "campground" is not paradise, but after the intensities and uncertainties of our recent travels, we are really enjoying the opportunity to stop at a scenic, historic, and safe place, and just do very, very little. And it's free.

So here we are; it's a small sandy cove, formerly a Roman

port, early empire (i.e., first century BCE); improved upon

by the Byzantines; abandoned, probably under Persian

pressure, 6th century

We think this says "Municipal park/beach, foreign

wild-campers welcome"

Anyhow, we are here

Port ruins, overlaid by Byzantine governor's palace (all

this was excavated only in 1995-1999, by an Italian team)

Arc of the great colonade, south side of port; there are

marble columns lying all around; the structure continues

on into the sand dunes...

One of many spare parts piles



Suna, a Swiss/Turkish businesswoman

camping by us the last few days, sporting

the 2 meter long snakeskin she found in

the ruins across the highway (next post);

she's fluent in German, Turkish, English,

French, and Italian; and fixed us a really

delicious Ottoman dinner this evening



Vicki skyping with sister Marie; note innovative use of head

as antenna tower



Thalatta!

OK, it was the Black Sea in Anabasis, but we are happy to be again on the middle sea, much of which we saw last winter in Spain and then France. It is comfortably warm and dry, and there are reminders everywhere that we are in a different place. We'll be along the Mediterranean and then the Aegean for the next several weeks and are looking forward to the seascapes, warmer weather, some greater variety in cuisine, and, of course, history and archaeology at every turn. We camped at a wide spot on the beach, just below Titus' Tunnel. A local fisherman said it was a safe place, noting that there was a military installation just round the bend. After dark, they came out, guns, helmuts, body armor, the whole bit, to check us out. They looked at our passports, said it was OK, and then welcome to Turkey.

On the beach

View out the driver's side

Fishing at sunset

We tore ourselves away from this spot only on the

assumption there would be better ones ahead; here, an

Armenian castle north of Adana

And camped in a citrus grove/rest area

outside of Tarsus

Everything in bloom

Titus' Tunnel

From Antakya we drove (through much awful road construction) to the sea, the beach town of Cevlik, the Roman town of Seleuceia, which was Antioch's port. Seleuceia was subject to severe flooding from the mountains nearby above, so the Romans did pretty much what they always did: divert the river. In this case the diversion was a mile-long trench/tunnel, commissioned by the emporers Titus and Vespasian. Just as we started trudging up the hill, the two tour buses of veterans pulled up, so we toured with them and enjoyed a long chat with one whose English was excellent.

In the trench, with the vets

Looks pretty much like this, from the bottom

This large mountain is the coastal border with Syria, the

Mediterranean below

A Turkish good luck tree (read Birds

Without Wings)

Roman bridge over the trench

The actual tunnel portion was getting a new

access staircase and was closed

At the end of the trail was a sizeable Roman necropolis

Interior view; do the shells make it Rococco? Did St. James

perhaps stop by here on his way to Galicia?

The trail passed through assorted citrus and olive

groves; we are definitely in the Mediterranean now

Olives, yum

Bucket of yum

Antakya Archaeological Museum

Antioch was an important Roman city, a cross-roads and trading center, and the archaeological museum contains a great number of very large mosaics and other artifacts. In general, we felt the quality/intactness of the mosaics did not approach what we saw in Gaziantep, but the collection still was impressive.

They were really big on sarcophogi in this part of the world

One of the more intact specimens

Eros and Psyche

"Who ordered the two pretzels deluxe?"

River god and wife, again

Animal music lovers

Some very large specimens

Closer up

At this point the museum was over-run by 2 bus-loads of

older guys, all wearing grey pants, blue blazers, white shirts,

nice striped ties, and military decorations; turns out there

was a convention of local leaders of Turkish veterans'

associations meeting in Antakya, doing some of the same

sites we did; two of them had served in the Korean War

Hittite lions

Spare parts garden