day 10

pictures for today... first, a view of the gymnasium facade and columns at Sardis; then an Ottoman mansion from Birgi; then our kedi of the day, obligingly held by a little girl who'd been playing with it in the courtyard of the Ottoman mansion. The non mansion is a house in Tire.. the sign on it indicates it is for sale "Bu Ev Satilik" .. so if you're in the market for real estate, I bet it would be a real deal. Then another little girl in Tire who really wanted her picture taken, and finally a long way down.. one of the few pictures I managed to take on the road over the mountains.



As I write this I am looking out at the Aegean from our hotel room. The sea is about 20 or 30 yards across the street. We're three floors up and the view is spectacular. We ate dinner on the terrace as the sun went down. It's nice. On the other hand, our view is a bit more prosaic, since our balcony is totally festooned with our clean laundry..... we were desperate to get clean clothes again (it's hot and sweaty here, believe me!

We will be here in Kusadasi for three nights, so we can get out of our suitcases. We're about 15 miles or so from the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus. It's not Ottoman, but it's not something anyone should miss, so we are here. Yay.

We began the day in Sardis and visited the ruins of the gymnasium. It is well restored and spectacular. We saw the huge facade, plus it's surrounding ring of shops and warehouses. There are also surviving mosaics, the remnants of an early synagogue, and a swimming pool as well as baths, bathrooms, and a swimming pool. Some of it was Greek, and it was then used by the Byzantines, the Ottomans, anyone who came along.....

Then came the excitement. We went up and over some rather high mountains to visit two ancient Ottoman villages that are now bustling small provincial market towns. The first was Birgi, about 2-3 hours of curly, small intestine shaped road. I really intended to take pictures of the view to the bottom, but apparently my camera closed its eyes every time I did. I'll post the best picture, but it is a weak and wimpy representation of the real thing. The highway, once again, was purportedly two lanes, but I think that was mostly imagination on the part of the mapmakers. We learned new gestures of disapproval from our driver, may Allah bless his house. At one point we were patiently following an overloaded large large truck up a particularly steep and curvy stretch. Every curve was a blind curve, of course. Then, in a particularly curvy curve, another truck, also overloaded to the point of being near toppling over, came roaring around us and the truck ahead of us all at once... blind curves and all. Only great good fortune kept there from being an oncoming truck/car/goatherd. Our driver had taught us some phrases of disapproval already..now we learned the gestures to go with them.

Our first mountain village was Birgi, once Aydinoglu. Our scholarly guide told us that these villages were initially built on the mountains for two reasons... first, because it preserved the limited flat land for farming; and second, because the highlands were more defensible against whoever was attacking. As waves of attackers came thru, they often occupied the plains, but not always the towns. The Ottoman practice was interesting, however; if a town or city would surrender, they were not attacked further, were allowed to keep lands and properties as long as they agreed to pay tribute. However, if they continued to resist, they were then destroyed...... most towns surrendered. Under Ottoman rule, they continued as they had been; often the tribute was less than they'd been paying to previous semi=feudal controllers... it makes sense that the Ottoman empire lasted a long time.

Birge had a number of old homes, a mosque, and other remnants of earlier Ottoman times. We explored a lot, then had lunch under the trees in the Turkish village equivalent of a fast food place. I could get used to most Turkish food.

Back on the road, now to Tire. Luckily the road was a little more civilized (heck, we were already up among the birds). It looked a little like the terrain inland from San Diego as you climb into the mountains. Lots of olive and fig trees, fields of corn and veggies, riots of wildflowers.. wild hollyhocks, tons of things I didn't recognize. Turkey is colorful, but not orderly in its landscape.

Tire had more old houses, a market, mosquito (the littlest minaret I've seen yet, even our Turkish guide whipped out her camera and took a picture of it! It was very very hot by now, but we explored quite a bit.

Then we finished the drive to Kusadasi. It means Island of the Birds and is not an island. It is, however,a major tourist destination. Huge cruise ships are in the harbor, and it is clearly a seaside destination. I hope to go hang out on the beach a little tomorrow afternoon after we come back from Ephesus.. or I could do more laundry!

Short post tonight, and a few pictures..... more tomorrow..