Even though our hotel is situated nicely on Turkey’s Turquoise Coast on the Mediterranean, I, and eleven other adventurous folks gave up our free day to travel with Ender to see the sites. And I’m so happy I did!
We began today by visiting Aspendos which has a beautifully preserved amphitheater
The amphitheater was built around 162AD and is remarkable today, in fact until very recently (like this year or last) it hosted the annual Aspendos Opera and Ballet Festival.
Aspendos, the town, was an important trading city but it is the amphitheater that draws us.
Here is the entrance to the amphitheater
Within the amphitheater, you have the wall or stage area that the audience faces.
This door is the stage door and leads behind the staging area.
And the backstage passage way.
There was an arched gallery went around the top of the theater that protected patrons from the elements..and when we visited it was closed off. But, if you look at this view of the outside of the building (you are looking UP) you’ll see supports for a roof that covered at least part of the seating. Remember,these would have been daytime performances and sheltering from the sun important.
The amphitheater seated about 12,000. Here is a period costume.
And here’s Eve deciding that all the world, might just be a stage… .
After Aspendos, we went on to Perge (pronounced “per gay”), What an incredible ruin! Like many of these sites, I’d never heard of Perge and I’m thrilled to have been there.My guidebook doesn’t say a lot about Perge and I’m so happy that Ender was our guide.
I certainly won’t do it justice here, but let me show you a few of the highlights…
Inside the city walls there was a theater and you can see from this photo that there were at one time statues on the plinths on this wall.
Many of these statues are now in the Antalya Archaeological Museum. Imagine this statue and many many others lining the walls above you.
What I found most interesting in Perge was the fact that the main street had a canal running right down the middle of it.
There was a fountain at the top of the street that funneled water right into town. Kind of a ground level aqueduct.
The main street was lined with columns with the canal in the center. The agora (marketplace shops) were off to the sides. See the squares defined by the stones?
As I walked around the ruins of this ancient market place I thought I could hear the sound of the water splashing in the canal, of children running and of the vendors calling: “Figs, come see my fresh figs” “This fish – my son caught this fish this morning. Best fish in the market” “Olives, olives, olives, buy my olives”
Then I realized it was just the birds and the wind.
Leaving Perge we traveled to the Antalya Archaeological Museum. If only we had had DAYS to visit instead of a couple of hours. I won’t even attempt to describe this incredible museum and it’s treasures, but I do want to show you a piece of pottery that caught my eye. Isn’t it beautiful?
It was time to go back to our wonderful hotel. Eve, Leroy, Elaine, Mary and I decided to have a picnic in our room.
YUM!
Then Mary and I went down to the water and here are a couple of photos of me enjoying the Mediterrean.
What a wonderful day