Annalise's Adventures in Wonderland: More from Turkey

After spending a week in Istanbul we decided we would spend 3 more weeks in Turkey and so we headed south to the coast. We headed to Selcuk to see the ruins of Ephesus (Efes in Turkish) which dates back to 10th century BC. It has some of the best preserved Ancient Greek and Roman buildings and houses, and includes the Temple of Artemis (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), a large gladiator graveyard, a massive theatre that can seat 24,000 people, and a church that is mentioned in the Book of Revelation and were the Gospel of John was written. Although we are not religious, it is really interesting to see all this history.

Library at Ephesus.

Theatre at Ephesus.

From there we went to travelled to Pamukkale. This is a small town with it's crowning glory being the calcium terraces known as travertine. Over many many years water rich in calcium carbonate has flowed out of springs and deposited calcium to form large terraces. You can walk on it, as long as you take your shoes off. For some reason I expected the travertines to be soft to walk on like snow, but of course it is not as it is actually rock. It is just very bright and white like snow. Above the travertines there is a another large city of Greek/Roman/Byzantine ruins named Hierapolis. This was a large city of about 100,000 people in its prime and was often (and still is) visited for its hot springs.

The travetine at Pamukkale.

Look how big it is!

Next we travelled south to Fethiye, a small town by the sea. During summer it is packed with British tourists who come to sail and lie in the sun, but as it was heading into winter when we were there, there weren't many people around. The town is on the Mediterranean coast and is surrounded by beautiful clear blue water. This town, like all towns in Turkey, has a long ancient history, and has rock tombs carved into the sides of the surrounding hill made by the people of Lycia.

Rock tombs above Fethiye.

Fethiye is also the start of a hiking trail called the Lycian Way. It is a 510km walkway that ends in Antalya. We were tired of always travelling by vehicle and wanted to get out of towns so we decided to hike some of it. We walked for seven days through amazing coastal villages and cliffs and hardly saw anyone. It was great! At night we stayed in guest houses in the villages and got to eat traditional local food. Most of it is vegetarian and the area specialises in honey and cheese. There are very few roads and shops in the area and in one village we came across the vege truck that visits the villages selling the fruit and vegetables as there was no shop in the village. All the people we met along the way were very friendly and we got by with sign language and smiles as not many people spoke English and we only spoke a few words of Turkish.

Village kids along the Lycian Way.

A great view from the Lycian Way.

After a quick trip back to Fethiye, we spent a few days in Antalya (nice old town, full of tourists) before heading to Cappadocia. This is one of the most famous places in Turkey and is known for hot air ballooning and its fairy chimneys formed from soft volcanic rock and eroded by wind and snow (this region gets very little rain). Over thousands of years, people have carved houses in to the rocks and towers and these are now tourist attractions and places to stay. Our room in a hostel was actually carved into the rock under a fairy chimney. We also got up very early one morning and went hot air ballooning. Our pilot was amazing, and managed to drop us down into the narrow valleys without hitting the walls. We got an amazing view of the sunrise and the area.

Hot air ballooning, Cappadoccia.

After that we headed north to the Black Sea and into Georgia...which will be my next post. The only other thing I need to tell you is that we have booked our flights home. We will be arriving in Auckland on the 15th January, just in time for summer.

Sorry for the long post, but here are some more photos.