Anemurium

A few miles west of Anemur is the ruined Roman city of Anemurium, right on the beach, flourishing for hundreds of years, then toppled by the 580 earth-quake and then, after the decline of Roman and Byzantine seapower, so vulverable to pirate raids it was never again re-occupied. We're beginning to understand that there are not half a dozen of these cities, or a dozen, but scores, just in Turkey.

A bit of the scope of the thing...

Palaestra...sort of the municipal Gold's Gym

Byzantine basilica

Aquaduct

Baths

Baths from above

Wall, upper reaches on the mountain

Looking back across the bay to Anemur

And its many high-rises

Pebble Beach

And a necroplis that seemed much larger than the city... what you might expect 
for a place with stable population for 8 or 9 centuries and their mortuary customs

Mamure Castle

So Thursday morning we drove back down from the mountains, into Silifke, and on to our goals for the day, Mamure Castle and the Roman ruins at Anemurium...

Skipping the fortress at Silifke

Driving the challenging coast road, D400--traffic, construction, great heights 
above the Mediterranean...

For example; they are putting in a 4-lane highway, which will extend the Turkish 
Riviera another hundred miles or so and bring much greater vitality to the eastern 
coast; but it's another 5 years off in my estimation

Also skipping the later medieval Armenian fortress, Softa...

Finally reaching Mamure, the great old Crusader castle; built on much older 
fortress sites, captured by the Ottomans in the 14th century; still very much 
intact, and impressively large, said to be the largest on Turkey's Mediterranean



Three sides of it are on the sea

View from one of the interior courtyards; note lack of handrails on stairs 
leading to battlements

Its mountainous backdrop



Seaward view

Its main tower on the left

Climbing the tower




Another interior view--hall off the tower



View from the tower; can't get the whole castle onto one frame



Staircase back down





One more view

It's a Long Way to Kizkalesi; It's Even Further to Uzuncaburc

Our driving today, perhaps 50 miles tops, took us through Kizkalesi along the coast and then up into the mountains, through some incredible limestone gorges, for a look at Uzuncaburc and environs, the former Roman city of Diocaesarea.

Kizkalesi, the castle, a couple hundred meters off shore

Land-lubbing Korykos castle, back on shore; this part of the coast was built-up 
through Greek/Roman/Byzantine times, then depopulated in later years; much 
remains of the earlier times

Arch at Korykos

Roman tomb on the way to Uzuncaburc

East gate to Diocaesarea

Detail (paint still showing) from Temple of Zeus Olbius

Temple of Zeus Olbius

Another day, another amphitheatre

Hellenistic citadel/tower, standing close by (2nd-3rd century 
BCE)

OK, the Greeks at this point are still working on the arch 
thing, but they are very, very close here...gravity+friction...
interior, ground floor

Another day, another necropolis

We decided to stay up high in the mountains (3,500 feet), parked in what we think 
is like a national forest picnic area; so far, no sign of the park ranger; also no 
barking dogs, and for the first time in weeks, no calls to prayer at 5:30AM (we

hope)

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...