Aspendos

Aspendos is a few miles down the road and a bit inland...the usual Greco/Roman city ruins, most in a more ruinous state. But it has one thing not ruined: its theatre, which is everywhere recognized as the most complete and best preserved instance of a Roman theatre anywhere.

It is a two camel site; note muzzles

Interestingly, these camels were capped at

both ends

From the outside, the theatre looks like an ordinary 2,000
year-old 5-story building (built during reign of Marcus
Aurelius)



Inside, you need a really big lens; ancient theatres are like

this, steep, nearly surrounding the stage, no seat more than

perhaps 150 feet from the action; no need to burn a 50 amp

fuse here



Vicki center stage



From where I was in the sky-boxes

In the high arcade...popcorn, peanuts, hot dogs, cold beer...

Sky-boxes



View from proscenium



Proscenium, the part that is best preserved at Aspendos



Deus ex machina?

View from the hill above



Hill-top ruins



Countryside around Aspendos

The parking fee at Aspendos was 8YTL ($5), which entitled us, we thought, to an overnight stay. It was a very quiet night. But the internet connection was good.

Side Now



Although there are conventional European campgrounds in

Turkey, most of the time what you get is a very small set of

minimally-equipped spots in the pansiyon's parking lot, as

here; but it was just fine, especially the location; as you can
see, we've just done the wash...



Of course, there may be chickens, turkeys, ducks, and

other animals running around



In the middle of an olive grove



But it's easy on the eyes, and everything still in bloom



Main commercial street in old-town; no stoa





The artifacts and commerce here are so

intermingled, it's hard to know where the

cafe ends and the temple begins



"Side" means pomegranate, so we had a cup of the juice;

too bad "Side" doesn't mean "extra dry Bombay Sapphire

martini with one large olive, patted dry" 

View back towards new town, beaches, development

Actually, Turkey and Norway have much in
common, at least in terms of taxing booze...

Guess the nationality of most tourists here

Side Then

Side is not particularly well preserved, except the amphitheatre, but all the fragments laying around, everywhere, give a pretty good indication of the lay-out and extent of the place, which was situated on a little peninsula jutting out into the Mediterranean.

Its two main streets were double-collonaded, the colonnades

roofed to provide stoa, that is, covered arcades in which

there were scores of shops...

The agora (marketplace), now looking like another spare

parts yard; I surmise the standing columns are all renovated

Ditto; the Turks seem to resurrect just enough to give you

a proper glimpse



The baths



Vicki at the Temples of Apollo and Athena



Temple of Apollo (reconstruction)



Tumbled-down Temple of Apollo (earthquakes are not good

for temples or other buildings)

Back at the theatre: those upper 29 rows

rested on very heavy-duty vaulting, as here

Entrance to the old town, a tight squeeze for

vehicles like ours

Colonnades again

The Nymphaneum (fountain) just outside the big gate

Side Fest

So as it happened, October 29th was also the last day of the 10th International Festival of Culture and Arts in Side, the closing gala concert, the Antalya State Opera and Ballet Symphony and Chorus, celebrating Republic Day, all occurring in the ancient amphitheatre. We went early, at 8:30PM, walking just a few hundred meters from our campground, stood in line with a couple thousand others, and then got to see, free and open to the public, the interior of the great amphitheatre as well as hear a fine concert.

Vespasian monument adjoining the theatre

Part of the exterior of the theatre (2nd century)

Nice banner



Festival director addresses the throng

Interesting theatre; seated 12,000 (I think), could be flooded

for naval battles; the lower 29 rows are built into the hill; the

upper 29 were built atop giant stone vaults (pix later), sort

of like the upper deck of a contemporary stadium

Playin'; the program was largely Verdi ("meretricious glitter,"

"merely an excuse for social gathering"), but its latter half

featured some Turkish music; we particularly enjoyed the

"Köçekçe, dance rhapsody for orchestra," by Umi Erkin.

The Road from Alanya to Side

It is a lovely drive, 4-lane divided, access roads, mountains on one side, a glorious beach on the other, development and banana plantations in between. I'll pontificate on the prospects of the Turkish Riviera on another occasion, but, from what we saw Friday, it clearly rivals Florida's beach development, in most respects; some not so desirable.

Billboards along an otherwise attractive and well-kept

public beach

A real caravansary...

Converted to a dinner/theatre complex; I think I saw
one of these once in Kissimmee

Another dinner theatre; note Trojan horse above; stars

Hector, Priam, Achilles, Agamemnon, Menelaus, and,

of course, the beautiful Helen; and a cast of hundreds

Vacation and resort properties, almost all new, all over

Some interesting architecture

Ditto; comes with inexpensive labor, or so we learned in

China

Banana plants right down to the beach

The occasional Roman ruin (and a minaret)

At length, we got to Side, a resort town wrapped around

another but unusually good Roman city; Vicki's good

eyes found us a campsite within a few hundred feet of

the ruins, which are strewn all over; and we got to see

A sunset beyond a storm at sea