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| Roman Theater, Aspendos, Turkey |
When we booked this cruise, one of the attractions was the
opportunity to visit places, not only that we had never visited, but places we
had never heard of before. Alanya, Turkey was one of the “never head of”
places, and it surely didn’t disappoint! I came with no expectations and
left with excellent memories of a lively Medieval seaside resort as well as
some of the best preserved ancient ruins in the world.
During our early morning sail in, I looked out to the port
side of the ship and there were the mountain cliffs dropping straight to the
sea below but with stone fortress walls zigzagging up the mountainside.
At the top was a 13th century medieval castle and at the bottom was the icon
for which Alanya is best known, the Red Tower. It was quite obvious that
the 13th century residents were in no mood for unwelcome visitors who more
aptly might be considered to be marauders. The castle at the top, which I
was unable to visit because of a scheduled shore excursion, is considered to be
one of the best preserved castles in Anatolia, the region in the western part
of Asia Minor which has the Mediterranean coastline and where Alanya is
located. The impressive city walls extend nearly four miles which has to
have been quite a feat for 13th century builders given the fact that they had
to build right along the steep cliff.
I chose a tour called Ancient Aspendos & Side
which was billed as a 5 hour tour but which actually lasted 6 hours for reasons
to be explained later. I had another outstanding tour guide, a man I
would estimate to have been in his early 40s who once again spoke in flawless
English with as good a vocabulary as any American might have. He told us
that Turkey has a population of about 77 million, most of whom live in the
small European part of Turkey where part of Istanbul is found and along the
west coast of Asia Minor. Alanya itself has a population of about 250,000
people which surprised me as I was totally unaware of its existence. He
commented that we should think of Turkey as having had three different empires
ruling it, going back first to the Romans, followed by the eastern
Byzantium Empire and finally the Ottomans which dominated into the 20th century
before Ataturk won Turkish independence for the area. Our guide commented
as we left Alanya that today was going to be a busy day in town as today was a
charity marathon being run. My initial thought was that it would be
rather interesting to see the start of the Marathon but the thought quickly
left me as we sped along the busy coastal highway, past expensive resorts along
what is called the Turkish Riviera. I could just as easily have been around
Orlando as along the Turkish coast!
The day started sunny and pleasant. We were told that
the temps would be about 80 degrees Fahrenheit and that was quite pleasant for
the coast of Turkey. In July and August it can reach, he said, around 120
degrees Fahrenheit with 80% humidity. I trust that my Arizona friends
would welcome the summer temps they receive rather than this kind of scorching
temperature! And not even the proverbial Arizona “dry heat”! Here
they can expect about 300 days of sunshine, but in other parts of Turkey
to the north and west, they can get 300 days of rain or rain/snow! So a
bit later when the sky got somewhat cloudy the guide commented that this was
rather unusual, but fortunately for us, there was no rain.
Our first stop was at ancient Aspendos, the site of a 2nd
century AD Roman theater. We crossed the Eurymedon River, on which
Aspendos was built as a major port city. During the Roman Empire, the huge
theater was constructed in the town. The huge amphitheater is the best
preserved theater in the Mediterranean region and is the only major building
that has been excavated, though it probable that there must be other buildings
dating to that era. Unfortunately for us, the theater is having major
reconstruction at present and it’s impossible to have an inside visit.
However, we could climb the nearby hill and view virtually the entire
amphitheater from an excellent vantage point above. We knew this in
advance so everyone climbed up to see the view. Because it’s temporary, the
ground was rough and some had a bit of difficulty making the climb, but the
view was worth it and lots of photos were taken! Our guide had given us
transmitters to listen to his commentary which was great since we could walk
around and see what we wanted and yet still hear what he was telling. In
so many other tours, we have to be within earshot of the guide to know what is
being said. Walk away just a bit and we lose the explanation. Today
we had the best of both. As we viewed, he told us that this amphitheater
was for performances only and was not used for gladiatorial contests. We
could tell that because there was no barrier between the arena/stage and the
audience. A barrier would be needed if wild animals were in the
arena. After we climbed back down, we visited nearby ruins of a Roman
aqueduct but we had to stop before we got too close as a farmer was irrigating
his crops and water was flooding all over the road. From there we drove
through a tiny village beneath some additional towering Roman aqueducts.
After a short photo stop and the opportunity to do some bargaining for items at
some craft tables just waiting for the tour buses to descend on them, we were
on our way to the second major stop in the resort seaside community of Side (pronounced
either the way we say the word or “see day” which is the way the guide
pronounced it.)
We got back on the highway and found that one of the two
lane road going in one direction was totally closed off and there was one lane
traffic in each direction on the part of the road that was open. Traffic
was surprisingly slow as we crept along at a snail’s pace and sometimes came to
a dead halt. The road on which there was no traffic had completely shut
down businesses including stores, restaurants, and gas stations. How rare
is it to see a gas station with absolutely no vehicles at it or totally empty
restaurants. Our guide said he was puzzled and figured there must
be a visit by a very important person (kind of what like happens in Chicago
when a certain prominent individual swoops into town, ties up traffic at
O’Hare, closes major thoroughfares, and inconveniences thousands).
Eventually as we arrived at Side, we turned off the main highway and drove into
this beautiful seaside village, known for both its ruins and its beautiful
seafront.
Even Antony and Cleopatra found Side to their liking and the
reputation has held for all these centuries. We drove through the village
with ornate columns and ruins lining the street. We plowed through the
traffic and went inside to view the smaller than Aspendos theater as it sat
“only” about 15,000 spectators. It too was well preserved but not to the
extent that Aspendos had been. Our guide pointed out a significant
difference between the amphitheaters at Aspendos and Side. Here in Side
he pointed out the barrier between the arena and the spectators. That
meant that gladiators had fought there for the amusement of the
spectators. He explained that sometimes in the morning, people were
entertained by watching animals fight each other and then they could watch the
public execution of those convicted of wrong doing at midday and finally the
fights between the gladiators would occur later as they watched men fight each
other to the death or sometimes were treated to the spectacle of men fighting
wild animals like lions and bears. Needless to say this form of “entertainment”
is found beneath disgusting today and was a practice which fortunately ended
centuries ago. Side was in its heyday between the 2nd and 4th centuries
AD and by the 10th century it was abandoned due to a combination of
earthquakes, decline of the Roman Empire, the Crusades, and Arab
raiders but by the 20th century it was on the rebound as a result of the
architectural treasures unearthed there.
We crossed the street and reentered 21st century Turkey as
our guide led us down a wide pedestrian street filled with stores selling
everything from gelato to souvenirs to Turkish carpets, to jewelry and watches
and more. Unlike my previous experience in Turkey, merchants weren’t
harassing us to buy some crazy item that we had no need or desire to buy.
However one young enterprising Turk saw our guide holding the lollipop with our
tour number (one). This young man held his arm high in the air and extended
his index finger and called out “one” and marched into his store.
However, unfortunately for him, no one took the bait and followed him.
The street led to the seafront but at that point we saw the ruins of the Temple
of Apollo and nearby, the Temple of Athena. These were blockaded off so
that restoration could occur. Nearby were ruins of an ancient Roman
bath. The guide gave us about 45 minutes to wander the village, view the
additional ruins, browse the shops or stop to get a bite to eat.
We left Side and returned to the busy coastal highway to
take us back to the port in Alanya, but found that highway still blocked off
for some reason, and with guards posted at frequent intervals along the
way. Our guide puzzled over it and then it dawned. Remember the
Marathon that was to begin in Alanya when we left? We were driving along
the race route and that was why the lanes of traffic were blocked! That’s
what made the traffic so slow on an early Sunday afternoon! As we
approached Alanya, we saw the leaders of the race pass us going in the opposite
direction. And then more, and more. As we got closer to Alanya,
runners had become walkers, apparently wanting to complete the Marathon course
but either lacked the stamina for such a long race or had no intention of
running in the first place. Even closer, we saw groups of people walking
back toward the starting line. This is what extended our five hour tour
by an additional hour. So instead of returning at 1:30, it was just after
2:30 that we got back
I had never seen this part of Turkey and was impressed with
the modern infrastructure that would have passed for many places in the US or
elsewhere in Europe. It was another good day that gave a new
understanding of Turkey. We were fortunate to have had our ship dock
there as our guide said we were the first cruise ship of the season and that
though Alanya is a tourist town, mostly for Northern Europeans, larger cruise
ships are unable to get close enough to the port to make tender operations
practical. Clearly this beautiful town is seldom visited by cruise ships
so we counted ourselves very privileged to have been able to see places most
other cruisers will never see.
CT
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