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

Antioch/Antakya

So, fresh from winning our plenary indulgences at the Church of St. Pierre, we drove right into centrum Antakya and found a parking place a mere two blocks from our main goal, the archaeological museum there. We had lunch at a nice place, Sultan Sofrasi, and then walked several blocks of the old town, and then, yes, visited another bazaar.

Baklava lite...made with Splenda?

At the restaurant, shooting a commerical or possibly that's the Turkish 
Anthony Bourdain

I had read that, the further south you go, the spicier the food gets; the yogurt/mint 
soup was very good, but the chicken stew Vicki had and the beef-stuffed eggplant 
I had were pretty bland; can't go any farther south than this...

Right on the main drag and the river

In the bazaar; he couldn't explain, and we couldn't figure out, what it is he is 
making on the huge rotating grill...

It comes out like the stringy stuff under the glass

Another day, another bazaar

At the shoe repair shop

Rug merchants of yore

Actually, we are in the market for some nice Turkish indoor/outdoor carpet...

Downtown Antakya, bridge over the Orontes River

Another Day, Another Cave: St. Pierre's in Antioch

From Gaziantep we headed further west, turning south after Osmaniye, and heading toward Antakya, the ancient Antioch. How Antakya comes to be part of Turkey is interesting. Formerly, until 1939, it was part of Syria, French Syria then. A plebescite took place, and the citizens of Antakya and its province voted to become part of the new Republic of Turkey. (The same thing happened, in the 1860s, with Nice; given a choice between being French or Italians, the Niceans voted overwhelmingly to become French; thus you might say that Antakya is to Turkey as Nice is to France; well, you might...). Antakya retains a bit of its French past; thus St. Pierre's church. We managed to find the church, in the near outskirts, and toured it before driving into ground zero Antakya.

Facade, 19th century, for St. Peter's, Antioch

Just enlarge and read to see this was a pretty important place 
for the earliest Christians; and, as you can see, Vicki and I 
both have plenary indulgences going for us now (whatever 
they are; does this mean we can park anywhere we like? only 
in Christendom? only in the Citta del Vaticano?)

Interior

Remains of mosaic floor

The baptismal font (no full immersion here)

Ex Cathedra

Looking out to Antakya; in ancient times, it was the Empire's 3rd largest city; 
vied with Constantinople; then earthquakes and invasions laid it low; still has 
600,000 residents, however

Gaziantep Museum

But the best reason for visiting Gaziantep is its archaeological museum. When, due to modern dam construction, the waters of the Euphrates began to rise, rescue archaeology financed by the American David Packard focused on the Roman city of Zeugma, and, consequently, some of the best and most intact mosaics ever found were saved. These mosaics now reside in the museum at Gaziantep.

Important PS: also in Gaziantep we found the wonderful Koluman Motorlu Araclar Ticaret ve Sanayi A. S., the local Mercedes Benz dealer, and a manager there who spoke excellent English, and had our engine oil/filters/etc., changed. Total cost was about $300. Compare this with $700 in Lisbon and $800 in Goteborg. So, we have resolved that, next time we need an oil change in Sweden, we will drive straightaway to Turkey.

In the Gaziantep Archaeology Museum; we have seen this 
pose before: Antiochos and Heracles, close personal buds




Closer up of a huge mosaic, the river god Okeanos and his wife Tethys, in a shallow 
pool of a Roman villa at Zeugma, 2nd century



Detail; vibrant colors, not a tile missing

Another room, showing the scale of this stuff

Another; all these were floor mosaics

Central panel of Euphrates River God mosaic, in a large room

Geometrical

Bronze Mars, found in an over-sized

amphora jar in Zeugma

Zeugma as it appeared in the "rescue"



What everyone comes to see is "the Gipsy Girl," a mosaic fragment often 
compared with the Mona Lisa; the signage here tells you she is not in the mosaic 
display area, but rather in the archaeology section (where, presumably, security is

better)

And there she is