I am sat in a lovely coffee shop in Canakkale, a port town that was one of the main objectives for capture by the allied forces in WW1. Though we missed Remembrance Day in the UK this year, we have learnt a lot about the war here and went to pay our respects in Gallipoli yesterday.
Since Istanbul we have experienced much more of Turkey and have absolutely loved our time here. It has, like so many places on this trip, been such a pleasant surprise with loads to do and a really easy going feel. The diversity of the terrain was no more evident than when we flew into Kayseri to see the nearby natural phenomena of Cappadocia.
We were taken by shuttle bus to Goreme, where we were basing ourselves to see the area. Even on this ride, dropping various people off at their hotels, we caught glimpses of the crazily unique landscape. As soon as we got dropped off we set straight out to climb up to the sunset spot. When we got up there we could see the valleys all around us and the tall columns of golden rock with doors and windows carved into them. It was like nothing we'd seen before and the red sunset looked beautiful over the valleys. The next day we set off on a tour to learn more about the rock formations and who lived in them- this was the best way to do as the area of Cappadocia is actually huge.
Unfortunately our tour guide was not the easiest to understand so we didn't learn as much as I would have liked to. However, we did visit the Hitit tribe's underground city- this tribe carved down into the soft rock to create a labyrinth of chambers, temples, tunnels, wells and store rooms under the earth. We learnt that this was for protection against invading forces. The structures were pretty sophisticated but not much fun with claustrophobia as the tunnels and spaces got smaller and smaller the deeper you went. After that we walked through the Ihlara Canyon with a lovely trickling stream through the middle. On the steep cliffs above us you could see where the tribes had carved their homes, including pigeon holes to collect poo for gunpowder and fertiliser! We then moved on to a carved monastery where you could still see the Byzantine paintings of biblical scenes on the rock.
To see another area of Cappadocia we took a second tour the next day. This was a lot more informative! The lady explained that the 'fairy chimneys' were formed when volcanic ash fell on top of what was at that point sea in the area. Layers of ask kept falling, forming porous pumice stone, and the final layer formed much harder basalt stone. So, over the centuries, the pumice has been weathered away by wind and rain, carving the thin columns you see today. However, the basalt rock weathers at a much slower rate so the structures end up looking like toadstools. On this tour we visited the highlight, the Goreme open air museum, which conserves a monastery and nunnery complex carved into the stone. In the multiple churches in the rock here, you could see much clearer rock paintings and later frescoes on the walls and ceilings, many with their eyes scratched out by the invading Ottomans. There were also some tombs that had skeletons still laying in them and dining tables carved into the rock. We had to move on that night to our next stop, Selcuk but if you ever get a chance to go to Cappadocia it is well worth the trip.
We flew again to save time (plus flights are very cheap internally here) to Izmir, towards the West coast of Turkey. We stopped for one night before getting the train through to Selcuk, our base to see Ephesus. Selcuk is a lovely small town, littered with incredible ancient ruins and with a very friendly, laid back feel. We stayed in a great hostel run by a Turkish-Australian guy and soon our planned one night turned into four! On our first day we explored the town and walked up to the ruins of St. John's cathedral. If it was still standing, it would be the 4th largest cathedral in the world so the ruins are incredibly impressive. There is an area marked as the burial place of John but it is particularly unremarkable. John is also said to have written his gospel atop the hill behind the cathedral. Now, I am not too hot on my biblical knowledge but I am pretty sure John is quite important in Christianity and could not believe that more wasn't being made of this place and that we were pretty much the only people there. Unless, that is, if Christians don't really believe he is buried there? Maybe someone who knows way more than me can clear that one up for me.....?
We also visited what remains of one of the ancient wonders of the world- the Temple of Artemis. Looking at the one tall but sad looking column left standing in a field, I found it pretty hard to imagine the splendour of this massive structure, but it was cool to see it. Yon wrapped the day up with a Turkish shave- an hour long process of soaping, shaving, spraying, massaging, washing and singeing!
The next day we hit the big daddy of the ruins world....Ephesus. We spent a good few hours mooching around the incredible ruins of this important ancient city. It is incredible how much is left/ has been slightly reconstructed- the enormous theatre that could seat over 20,000 people and the incredible Library of Celsus. That night, our good Aussie friend Joe popped up again and we arranged to all go to Pamukkale the next day.
Pamukkale is difficult to explain- it kind of looks like someone has poured Greek yoghurt all over a big cliff! In actual fact it is the build up of centuries of carbonate minerals cascading down the hills and building up into brilliant white rock rivers and plateaus. In the plateaus natural thermal waters have collected producing warm pools where the Romans bathed. We were on a bit of a schedule so rapidly made our way up the hill, barefoot to the Ancient Pool at the top, which had been recommended to us. It was expensive to get in but the 35 degree spring waters made it worth it....what made it even more special is that you are swimming above ancient ruins submerged beneath the water. It was a brilliant and long day!
Our final day in Selcuk was spent relaxing and visiting the massive market of beautiful fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, dairy, sweets, nuts...anything you can imagine. We were sad to leave Selcuk but had to move on to see another ancient city- Pergamum. We stayed in Bergama and took the cable car up to the ruins atop the hill. We had been a bit ruined by Ephesus so Pergamum fell a little flat as there is not much intact there, however the views were pretty amazing from the top. Also, as is the case with so many of these artefacts of the ancient world, the most impressive part of Pergamum we had seen years earlier in the Berlin museum!
We took a very nice bus further up the coast to Canakkale. The buses are crazy- huge coaches that have had one row of seats removed so they can wheel a trolley down to serve you free drinks and snacks! Canakkale sits on one side of the narrows of the Dardanelles- across the water is the Gallipoli peninsula. I have to admit before we did the tour yesterday I knew embarrassingly little about what happened here during WW1. Especially, compared to the Australian and New Zealand fellow tourists who, as they suffered their greatest loss here, are taught the history at school and remember the events every ANZAC day. The tour was very interesting as it explained that Turkey had allied with Germany (although not enthusiastically so) but the land was considered strategically crucial for the allied troops to be able to reach Russia, via the Black Sea, as the overland route through Europe was now hostile. The allied troops thought they'd very easily defeat the Ottomans starting at Gallipoli which would give them a direct route up through the Dardanelles to the heart of the empire, Istanbul and then they could control the Black Sea. Obviously things didn't work out that way and the allied forces, including the ANZAC troops, were met with ferocious fighting from a people protecting their land. After botched movements and examples of poor leadership, over 100,000 men from both sides were dead, a stalemate was reached and the allied forces were evacuated having made no progress at all. It is a sombre place for all parties and the place from which the Turkish hero, Ataturk, sprung to greatness- a General who led the Turkish forces to push the allied forces back time and time again, later became the first leader of an independent Turkey and is commemorated in images in pretty much every house/hostel/cafe/restaurant you enter here.
Yesterday we had to stay our final goodbye to Joe, who we will hopefully see again one day in Singapore, and tomorrow we say goodbye to Turkey as we fly on to our next adventure in Cairo....
Since Istanbul we have experienced much more of Turkey and have absolutely loved our time here. It has, like so many places on this trip, been such a pleasant surprise with loads to do and a really easy going feel. The diversity of the terrain was no more evident than when we flew into Kayseri to see the nearby natural phenomena of Cappadocia.
We were taken by shuttle bus to Goreme, where we were basing ourselves to see the area. Even on this ride, dropping various people off at their hotels, we caught glimpses of the crazily unique landscape. As soon as we got dropped off we set straight out to climb up to the sunset spot. When we got up there we could see the valleys all around us and the tall columns of golden rock with doors and windows carved into them. It was like nothing we'd seen before and the red sunset looked beautiful over the valleys. The next day we set off on a tour to learn more about the rock formations and who lived in them- this was the best way to do as the area of Cappadocia is actually huge.
Unfortunately our tour guide was not the easiest to understand so we didn't learn as much as I would have liked to. However, we did visit the Hitit tribe's underground city- this tribe carved down into the soft rock to create a labyrinth of chambers, temples, tunnels, wells and store rooms under the earth. We learnt that this was for protection against invading forces. The structures were pretty sophisticated but not much fun with claustrophobia as the tunnels and spaces got smaller and smaller the deeper you went. After that we walked through the Ihlara Canyon with a lovely trickling stream through the middle. On the steep cliffs above us you could see where the tribes had carved their homes, including pigeon holes to collect poo for gunpowder and fertiliser! We then moved on to a carved monastery where you could still see the Byzantine paintings of biblical scenes on the rock.
To see another area of Cappadocia we took a second tour the next day. This was a lot more informative! The lady explained that the 'fairy chimneys' were formed when volcanic ash fell on top of what was at that point sea in the area. Layers of ask kept falling, forming porous pumice stone, and the final layer formed much harder basalt stone. So, over the centuries, the pumice has been weathered away by wind and rain, carving the thin columns you see today. However, the basalt rock weathers at a much slower rate so the structures end up looking like toadstools. On this tour we visited the highlight, the Goreme open air museum, which conserves a monastery and nunnery complex carved into the stone. In the multiple churches in the rock here, you could see much clearer rock paintings and later frescoes on the walls and ceilings, many with their eyes scratched out by the invading Ottomans. There were also some tombs that had skeletons still laying in them and dining tables carved into the rock. We had to move on that night to our next stop, Selcuk but if you ever get a chance to go to Cappadocia it is well worth the trip.
We flew again to save time (plus flights are very cheap internally here) to Izmir, towards the West coast of Turkey. We stopped for one night before getting the train through to Selcuk, our base to see Ephesus. Selcuk is a lovely small town, littered with incredible ancient ruins and with a very friendly, laid back feel. We stayed in a great hostel run by a Turkish-Australian guy and soon our planned one night turned into four! On our first day we explored the town and walked up to the ruins of St. John's cathedral. If it was still standing, it would be the 4th largest cathedral in the world so the ruins are incredibly impressive. There is an area marked as the burial place of John but it is particularly unremarkable. John is also said to have written his gospel atop the hill behind the cathedral. Now, I am not too hot on my biblical knowledge but I am pretty sure John is quite important in Christianity and could not believe that more wasn't being made of this place and that we were pretty much the only people there. Unless, that is, if Christians don't really believe he is buried there? Maybe someone who knows way more than me can clear that one up for me.....?
We also visited what remains of one of the ancient wonders of the world- the Temple of Artemis. Looking at the one tall but sad looking column left standing in a field, I found it pretty hard to imagine the splendour of this massive structure, but it was cool to see it. Yon wrapped the day up with a Turkish shave- an hour long process of soaping, shaving, spraying, massaging, washing and singeing!
The next day we hit the big daddy of the ruins world....Ephesus. We spent a good few hours mooching around the incredible ruins of this important ancient city. It is incredible how much is left/ has been slightly reconstructed- the enormous theatre that could seat over 20,000 people and the incredible Library of Celsus. That night, our good Aussie friend Joe popped up again and we arranged to all go to Pamukkale the next day.
Pamukkale is difficult to explain- it kind of looks like someone has poured Greek yoghurt all over a big cliff! In actual fact it is the build up of centuries of carbonate minerals cascading down the hills and building up into brilliant white rock rivers and plateaus. In the plateaus natural thermal waters have collected producing warm pools where the Romans bathed. We were on a bit of a schedule so rapidly made our way up the hill, barefoot to the Ancient Pool at the top, which had been recommended to us. It was expensive to get in but the 35 degree spring waters made it worth it....what made it even more special is that you are swimming above ancient ruins submerged beneath the water. It was a brilliant and long day!
Our final day in Selcuk was spent relaxing and visiting the massive market of beautiful fresh fruit, vegetables, fish, dairy, sweets, nuts...anything you can imagine. We were sad to leave Selcuk but had to move on to see another ancient city- Pergamum. We stayed in Bergama and took the cable car up to the ruins atop the hill. We had been a bit ruined by Ephesus so Pergamum fell a little flat as there is not much intact there, however the views were pretty amazing from the top. Also, as is the case with so many of these artefacts of the ancient world, the most impressive part of Pergamum we had seen years earlier in the Berlin museum!
We took a very nice bus further up the coast to Canakkale. The buses are crazy- huge coaches that have had one row of seats removed so they can wheel a trolley down to serve you free drinks and snacks! Canakkale sits on one side of the narrows of the Dardanelles- across the water is the Gallipoli peninsula. I have to admit before we did the tour yesterday I knew embarrassingly little about what happened here during WW1. Especially, compared to the Australian and New Zealand fellow tourists who, as they suffered their greatest loss here, are taught the history at school and remember the events every ANZAC day. The tour was very interesting as it explained that Turkey had allied with Germany (although not enthusiastically so) but the land was considered strategically crucial for the allied troops to be able to reach Russia, via the Black Sea, as the overland route through Europe was now hostile. The allied troops thought they'd very easily defeat the Ottomans starting at Gallipoli which would give them a direct route up through the Dardanelles to the heart of the empire, Istanbul and then they could control the Black Sea. Obviously things didn't work out that way and the allied forces, including the ANZAC troops, were met with ferocious fighting from a people protecting their land. After botched movements and examples of poor leadership, over 100,000 men from both sides were dead, a stalemate was reached and the allied forces were evacuated having made no progress at all. It is a sombre place for all parties and the place from which the Turkish hero, Ataturk, sprung to greatness- a General who led the Turkish forces to push the allied forces back time and time again, later became the first leader of an independent Turkey and is commemorated in images in pretty much every house/hostel/cafe/restaurant you enter here.
Yesterday we had to stay our final goodbye to Joe, who we will hopefully see again one day in Singapore, and tomorrow we say goodbye to Turkey as we fly on to our next adventure in Cairo....
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