Myra and Santa Claus

From Olympos we drove on, across mountains and then into some of the coast's intensively agricultural zones, citrus and tomatoes mostly, the tomatoes mostly in plastic-covered greenhouses, acres of them, miles of them in the valleys, reminiscent of southern Spain, whole towns covered in plastic wrap. We stopped at Demre, to see the Lycian/Roman ruins at nearby Myra and also the shrine, etc., of St. Nicholas, who was bishop of Myra way back in the 4th century.

At Myra the thing to see is the Lycian house tombs, many

carved into the cliffs

Also the theatrical stuff

To wit...

But mostly the tombs

The St. Nicholas, patron saint of fishermen,
children, bakers, butchers, candle-stick makers,
et al.

Despite the fact there are no Greeks nor

Christians around (it's a long, unpleasant

story), Demre nonetheless has a

flourishing St. Nick trade--half a dozen

stores like this

Interior of St. Nick store; looks pretty Christmassy, right?

Trouble is, all they sell are these icon things...

which hardly make good tree ornaments;

nary a "ho, ho, ho!" in these precincts, nor

Rudolph, nor elves; so what you have here,
in my interpretation, is a Muslim take on a
Greek Orthodox saint, whose bones were
stolen from Myra by Roman Christians and
taken to Bari, Italy....and the rest is history...
well, actually, little of it is history, except the
theft part, but it's one of Christianity's most
beloved stories, except the theft part, and
we mustn't be too fussy about things like 
history, reality, etc.

Demre, plastic-wrapped city

Chimaera

From Phaselis we drove on, now beautiful coast, now mountain heights, then dropping down to the seaside village of Olympos and then back up the canyon and the slopes of Olympos where, a kilometer up the mountain, reside the mythical Chimaera. The Chimaera are eternally-burning gaseous vents on the mountainside, known from earliest antiquity, the stuff of the myths of Bellapharon and Pegasus who slew the dragon. We arrived in the afternoon, I did a reconnaissance hike, then we viewed the Chimaera together, then, after dinner, I did the hike up again to see it all in darkness. So much of antiquity is a matter of ruin and trace and conjecture. Here the natural and the mythical intersect and are intact. We stayed overnight in the parking lot, 15YLT, no extra charge for roosters, barking dogs, the taxi at 2:30AM, nor the usual muezzin.

On the trail to the Chimaera, a love tree (so I was told); lovers

tie knots around the limbs and vines





So we tied a knot of duct tape--known world-wide as

"American tape"--to mark our passage and love

The Chimaera; this day, about twenty open, burning vents

Temple ruins

Looking down the mountainside to the sea

Closer up; the exact composition is unknown, but it

combusts on contact with the atmosphere, no ignition

required, thank you

Ditto, among the temple ruins

Vicki, warming up

Me roasting Turkish Delight

I walked back up the mountain that evening; one imagines

in such circumstances having the place to himself; but not

this place; cars and vans had kept arriving, and, despite the

moonless night and poor footing, the mountainside was

covered with small groups of people

Families mostly, telling stories; it's probably been just like

this for many millennia...

A last look at a singular place

Phaselis

Reluctantly, we left our little beach campsite and drove on down the beautiful coast to Phaselis, another Graeco/Roman colony city/port. Phaselis is noted not merely for its ruins--the usual baths, agora, gate, theatre--but for its idyllic setting, the small harbors ranged around the town.

Parking in the shade of the aquaduct

Baths



Remains of Hadrian's Gate

North harbor and Mt. Olympos

North harbor, other direction

Main street, Phaselis

Small baths and heating apparatus

Theatre



November, bulbs are coming up, flowers are blooming...

Middle harbor...the water is so incredibly clear here and all along this coast

Me, by the middle harbor

Aquaduct, again

Antalya Outtakes

Billboard-sized ad on a big rug store; we are still processing

this one...

I was trying to take a picture of the sign when the guard

came out and told me the bugger off...



More stone recycling in city walls...this time using Arabic



Cat on a mission; the bird got away

Small world after all: the Don Quijote Cafe in Antalya,

Turkey, where you can get eine tasse caffee [sic] und apfel

kuchen for just 3 euros

School kids all over Turkey wear uniforms, smart-loooking

uniforms, I think, and this is a display outside a school

uniform store near the bazaar

Unusual pose for Ataturk

Driving out of town, sign on a building advertising

kick-boxing, fitness, and muay thai: "the best muay thai, get

there earlier..."; really thai'd things together for us...

So we drove on, west, around the bay and found a beach

camping site at a place called Beldibi Tatil Koyleri; looking

back toward Antalya

Actually, we liked it so much, and the weather was so good,

we stayed two nights

Antalya

So from the museum parking lot we took the tram into the old town and spent several hours walking around and seeing a few of the sights. If you visit Turkey, don't miss Antalya and environs...very great scenery, heritage, ambience....

Clock tower



 

One of the things I wanted to see in Antalya

was the fluted minaret--remembering the

huge one in old Delhi--alas, it's under wraps

A peek inside the Mosque of the Fluted Minaret (c. 13th

century)

And a peek inside the wrap, a flute, some of

blue tile; actually it's a good bit younger and
a good bit smaller that the 200 foot high
fluted minaret at Qutub Minar (see the
November 16, 2008 post)

Hadrian's Gate

Old town street scene



Ruins of the Truncated Mosque



Why it's called truncated; it was originally a

2nd century temple (and probably an earlier

temple stood on the site; that's the way of

sacred sites), then a church, then a mosque,

then a church, then a mosque, then, best of

all, it burned down and became a truncated

tourist attraction

Antalya had the best collection of beautiful Mediterranean

restaurants I have seen; dozens of them; this one merely

typical

View across the bay, from the large park at the end of the

peninsula enclosing the old harbor

Ditto; the haze added to the interest of the mountains, we

thought

Looking back to the old town; the big flag is at the museum