Antalya, Turkey - August 3

Aspendos

Aspendos

Antalya is a port that was a substitute for Jerusalem. While I am quite disappointed about missing Jerusalem, I’m not sad to miss the 10 hour days that Jerusalem would have meant for us.

Aspendos

Aspendos

The tour we’ve chosen today visits 2 archeological ruins. The first is Aspendos which are ruins amongst the Taurus Mountains. This is a very short (15min) stop and all we see is the theatre. I say ‘only’ but it is very impressive. Apparently the Roman theatre (2nd century AD - during the reign of Marcus Aurelius) here is the best preserved of any on the Mediterranean coast.  Performances here today are done without microphones because acoustics are so perfect. We climb up to about midway of the seating. So far I’m thoroughly pleased that the heat is not oppressive – the facilities aren’t so bad either.

Perge

Our second site visit is Perge – these ruins are from about 1000 BC. Although Perge was not a very large city, its theatre held nearly 14,000 people. This is where the heat is turned WAY up. According to the guide the heat at least means that there are few tourists here.

The Turks really know what they’re doing ruin-wise. These ruins are something else compared to what we’ve seen in Greece. Of course there are spectacular ruins in Greece, but the Turkish ones in my experience are a whole lot more interestingly presented.

Perge

After the formal part of the tour we spend a bit of time on our own in the old part of Antalya. We are a bit disappointed as there isn’t much for tourists here. We finally find a spot that offers beer (not always easy in Turkey.) It seems like this place is in an inner courtyard, but when we commit, we are ushered to an upper floor that overlooks the street – pretty cool and cool.

Perge

Antalya port

mountains - gorgeous